Institute for Justice
February 2020, Volume 29, Issue 1
IJ Sues TSA and DEA For Taking Cash From Innocent Flyers
For those traveling with cash, that hassle turns into a nightmare when they are treated like criminals—and even find their money taken from them through civil forfeiture. That’s what happened to Terry Rolin and his daughter, Rebecca Brown. Terry is a retired railroad engineer living near Pittsburgh. As the son of parents who lived through…
When Protectionism Hurts Those in Need: IJ Challenges “Certificate of Need”
Louisville, Kentucky, may be best known as the home of the Kentucky Derby and Louisville Slugger baseball bats. Many people may not know, however, that Louisville is also home to a large community of Nepali-speaking immigrants. Many of these immigrants are refugees, who resettled in Kentucky after being violently expelled from their native Bhutan. And…
To Get a Warrant Or Not to Get a Warrant? There Is No Question
We’ve all heard the saying that your home is your castle. Zion, Illinois, has added an asterisk to that well-known idea: *unless you’re a renter. Ordinarily, if the government wants to search a person’s home, it needs to get a warrant. But under a recently enacted city ordinance, Zion residents who rent their homes must…
IJ Launches New Project To Challenge Unjustified Immunity Doctrines
In January, the Institute for Justice announced an exciting and vitally important new endeavor: IJ’s Project on Immunity and Accountability. As IJ Senior Vice President and Litigation Director Dana Berliner described in the last issue of Liberty & Law, immunity doctrines shield government officials from having to pay damages even when they blatantly violate someone’s…
The Government Destroyed Her Home With Grenades; She’s Fighting Back at the U.S. Supreme Court
The Institute for Justice launched the Project on Immunity and Accountability with a petition for certiorari that highlights the threat these immunity doctrines pose to fundamental rights. When our client Shaniz West came home to find her house surrounded by local police looking for her ex-boyfriend, she did what the government probably hopes all citizens…
Engineering Economic Liberty Protections For an Arizona Entrepreneur
Greg Mills is an engineer. He has spent more than 30 years designing and building electrical circuits for everything from flashlights to satellites and has worked for companies like General Dynamics and Spectrum Astro. Greg became an entrepreneur when he opened his own small business—Southwest Engineering Concepts—to help other entrepreneurs and small businesses. He provides…
School Choice In Action Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue
As this issue of Liberty & Law goes to press, IJ is before the U.S. Supreme Court defending educational choice on behalf of parents and children in Montana. In addition to arguing our case before the Justices, we organized a rally of more than 150 school children benefiting from the opportunity to choose the school…
IJ Notches a Victory For Washington Students
For nearly three decades, as part of our defense of educational choice, IJ has tackled—and defeated—state constitutional provisions known as Blaine Amendments. Found in some 37 state constitutions, these relics of 19th-century bigotry are favorite tools of teachers’ unions and others seeking to cripple otherwise robust educational choice programs. We recently chalked up a big…
Mothers and Babies—and Those Who Help Them—Deserve Their Day in Court
Working as a certified lactation counselor has taken me to some interesting places, including hospitals, clinics, and medical schools all over the country. In January, my commitment to breastfeeding education and awareness took me somewhere entirely new: the Georgia Supreme Court. I went with my colleagues at Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE), a nonprofit organization…
Transforming the Legal—and Regulatory—Landscape in Texas
One of the hallmarks of IJ’s economic liberty litigation is our strategic vision. We win victories to build a rule of law that protects the right of everyone to earn an honest living free from unnecessary government interference. After securing wins in court, IJ of course builds on that precedent by filing new lawsuits. But…
IJ Makes Headlines
These articles and editorials are just a sample of favorable local and national pieces IJ secured in the weeks prior to the release of the December issue of Liberty & Law. By getting our message out in print, radio, broadcast, and online media, we show the real-world consequences of government restrictions on individual liberty—and make…
