Model Legislation
Immunity and Accountability
Protecting Everyone’s Constitutional Rights Act–(Q.I. Reform)
This model bill guarantees that if citizens must follow the law, state and local government officials must follow the Constitution.
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Universal Recognition of Occupational Licenses Act
Occupational licenses often are barriers to worker mobility. One state will not recognize another state’s license because personal qualifications differ. And even when some recognition is included in statutes, state laws often impose significant costs—in…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Sunrise & Sunset Occupational Licensing Review Act
Occupational licensing is one the biggest issues in labor economics today. About 25% of workers needs a government-issued license to work. That represents a five-fold increase since the 1950s, when only about 5% of workers…
4th Amendment Project | Open Fields Doctrine
Protecting Real Property From Warrantless Searches Act
The Fourth Amendment protects the right to be secure from government’s unchecked power to search and seize. Ordinarily, courts enforce that right by requiring a warrant before government officials enter private property. But in 1924,…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Anti-Circumvention Forfeiture Act
Under civil forfeiture, the state can permanently confiscate your cash, car, and other property, without a prosecutor convicting, or even charging you with a crime. Although some states have acted to protect innocent property owners,…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Military Families Licensing Recognition Act
The process of transferring an occupational license from one state to another can be daunting, time-consuming, and frustrating. This is especially true for military service members, who frequently relocate due to deployments. It’s not just…
Economic Liberty | Private Property
Housing Opportunities Made Easier (HOME) Act
The housing shortage is problem that can be significantly solved with one change. Scholars, state legislators and municipal officials from different backgrounds agree that a crucial component to increasing supply is to reform zoning laws.
Fines and Fees | Private Property
Fair Funding for Courts Act
The justice system is a core government function that benefits all Americans. State legislators should fund courts from general revenue, not from individuals involved in the system. Fees charged to users of the judicial system…
Immunity and Accountability
Protecting Everyone’s Constitutional Rights Ordinance
Qualified immunity is a judge-made doctrine that shields local, state and federal government officials–not just police–from accountability. In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court created the doctrine to ensure, in its words, it would be difficult…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Criminal Forfeiture Process Act
Civil forfeiture is a serious assault by government on cars, cash and other property. To lose your property in most states, prosecutors do not have to charge you, let alone convict you of a crime.
4th Amendment Project | Third Party Doctrine
Protection of Shared Physical and Digital Property from Warrantless Searches Act
The Fourth Amendment aims to safeguard privacy and property by restricting the government’s authority to conduct searches and seizures. Typically, officials are required to secure a warrant from a judge before they can examine or…
Immunity and Accountability
State Court Remedies for Constitutional Violations by Federal Employees Act
State legislators’ most important responsibility is to protect rights under the laws and constitutions of the United States and their states. This responsibility includes providing a remedy of damages against government officials who violate those…
First Amendment
Anti-SLAPP Act
Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) are a way for individuals who do business with the government to silence their critics through costly lawsuits. In many states, there are no protections from frivolous defamation suits…
Cosmetology | Economic Liberty
Niche-Beauty Services Opportunity Act
Hairstyling salons, often referred to as “blow dry bars,” are gaining popularity nationwide. They offer fewer services than traditional cosmetology salons, focusing on shampooing, blow drying, and styling, while excluding haircuts or chemical treatments. These…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Occupational Licensing Relief and Job Creation Act
About a fifth of the American workforce must get a permission slip from the government—known as an occupational license—to legally work in their chosen occupations. Getting a license can be costly and time-consuming, requiring fees,…
Economic Liberty | Fresh Start
FRESH START: Collateral Consequences in Occupational Licensing Act
A job is one of the best ways for people with criminal records not to re-offend. But many occupational licensing laws block or burden ex-offenders. Some licenses have morality clauses that (1) bar automatically and…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Seizure and Forfeiture Reporting Act
Civil forfeiture—where the government can take and keep your property without ever charging you with a crime, let alone convicting you of one—is one of the greatest threats to property rights in the nation. Such…
Fines and Fees
Fines and Fees Reporting Act
Most municipalities allow law or code enforcement officers to cite residents for violations that may result in fines. Unfortunately, some use this power to generate revenue rather than solely to protect public safety and property.
Food Freedom | Private Property
Vegetable Garden Protection Act
People have used their property to grow food since the dawn of modern civilization. Americans are no different. Our national identity is rooted in the Jeffersonian ideal of farmers and settlers. Even as fewer people…
First Amendment | Sign Codes
Sign Code Act
In June 2015, the United States Supreme Court decided its first sign code case in over 20 years, Reed v. Town of Gilbert, Arizona, 135 S. Ct. 2218 (2015). The Court’s opinion in Reed made clear that when…
Cosmetology | Economic Liberty
Salon Inspection Act: Regulate Salons—Free People
The beauty industry offers great opportunities for work and entrepreneurship. However, states erect roadblocks by requiring barbers, cosmetologists, estheticians and nail technicians to spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to attend schools and…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Occupational Regulation Defense Act
Occupational licensing is under increasing scrutiny. Groups as ideologically diverse as the Obama White House, the Trump Administration’s Federal Trade Commission, the Brookings Institution, the National Conference of State Legislators and the Institute for Justice, have…
Economic Liberty | Vending
Mobile Food Vendor Freedom Act
Everyone benefits from food trucks. With low start-up costs, food trucks offer first-time entrepreneurs the opportunity to experiment, accumulate capital and build businesses. For established restauranteurs, they are a means to expand, build their brands…
Economic Liberty | Private Property
Home-Based Business and Occupation Act
The pre-COVID custom of Americans living in one place but working from another is historically unusual. As one scholar noted, “the phenomenon of leaving home to go to work did not become the norm until…
Economic Liberty | Food Freedom
Food Freedom Act
Selling homemade food is a great way for entrepreneurs with big dreams but little capital to start a business. Working from their homes, they can avoid spending tens of thousands of dollars on commercial kitchen space.
Cosmetology | Economic Liberty
Eyebrow Threader Opportunity and Freedom Act
Eyebrow threading is an ancient grooming technique that dates back thousands of years to parts of South Asia and the Middle East. Using only a simple cotton thread to form loops as they work, threaders…
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Eminent Domain Act
Despite mass public outcry following the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous decision in Kelo v. City of New London, eminent domain for private gain continues to threaten homeowners and small businesses. While 43 states reformed their laws…
Educational Choice | Tax Credit Scholarships
Education Savings Account Act: Tax-Credit Funded
Our present system of delivering publicly funded education is in need of dramatic reform. Educational choice programs provide that reform as they shift the power from state boards of education and school districts to parents. …
Educational Choice | Publicly Funded Scholarships
Education Savings Account Act: Publicly Funded
Our present system of delivering publicly funded education is in need of dramatic reform. Educational choice programs provide that reform as they shift the power from state boards of education and school districts to parents. …
Fines and Fees
Driver’s License Suspensions and Revocations
Eleven million Americans face the suspension or revocation of driving privileges because of unpaid fines and fees. Suspending and revoking licenses for the collection of court debt, and not public safety, is bad public policy.