Institute for Justice
December 2010, Volume 19, Number 6
December 2010, Volume 19, Number 6
Need for Judicial Engagement Makes IJ More Critical Than Ever
By Chip Mellor Although the recent election brought a welcome rebuke of the statist juggernaut and fiscal irresponsibility, it will not be enough to ensure that federal and state legislatures refrain from business as usual. Only constraints imposed on government by the Constitution will do that. This means courts must fulfill their role, which James…
IJ Scores Major Free Speech Victory for Parker North Neighbor
By Steve Simpson In November, a federal appellate court ruled that six neighbors in the tiny subdivision of Parker North, Colo., should not have been forced to register with the government and comply with burdensome campaign finance laws simply for opposing a ballot issue involving the annexation of their neighborhood. In Sampson v. Buescher, a…
Keep Out! Campaign Finance Laws as Barriers to Entry
By Lisa Knepper Entrepreneurs bring vitality to the marketplace, driving innovation and change. But all too often, established interests respond to such competition not by competing in turn, but by colluding with government to pass laws like occupational licensing rules that keep upstarts out of the market. In the political arena, campaign finance laws have…
Camp Politics Video Teaches with Humor
Public policy and legal issues may start out as boring and complicated topics, but no one ever said they must stay that way. So, to better help the public understand the dangers of government-imposed campaign finance restrictions, the Institute for Justice breathed some life and humor into this often dry and complicated subject. Through a…
An IJ Victory Down on the Farm
By Anthony Sanders Farmers and consumers in Lake Elmo, Minn., and across the nation recently won a victory for interstate trade and farming freedom. Thanks to pressure brought to bear by an IJ lawsuit filed in May of this year—as detailed in the August 2010 edition of Liberty & Law—the Lake Elmo City Council repealed…
IJ Launches Nationwide Defense of Citizen Speech
Under the First Amendment, the only thing you should need to talk about politics is an opinion. After all, as the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized, the First Amendment was designed to protect a marketplace of ideas that is “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.” Yet across the country, ordinary Americans find their right to associate with…
School Choice Showdown at U.S. Supreme Court
On a bright, clear and cold November morning in the heart of our nation’s capitol, 800 smiling Arizona children faced out from the U.S. Supreme Court while the Justices inside questioned lawyers about the constitutionality of a tax credit scholarship program those children rely on to attend private schools—schools chosen by their parents. And IJ…
IJ’s New City Studies: Want to Create Jobs? Remove Red Tape.
By Dana Berliner Let’s face it: American government at every level works diligently to stop entrepreneurs from ever getting their small businesses off the ground. Sure, government officials claim they support entrepreneurship. But in reality, they often just support a few hand-picked or politically connected businesses, granting virtual monopolies to favored businesses while shutting out…
