IJ's Cases
Economic Liberty | Hair Braiding | Occupational Licensing
Missouri Hair Braiding
If you want to braid hair for a living in Missouri, you must spend thousands of dollars on at least 1,500 hours of cosmetology training that teaches you nothing about African-style hair braiding.
Economic Liberty | Hair Braiding | Occupational Licensing
Arkansas Hair Braiding
Hair braiding is a simple and safe practice that the government has no business regulating. But in Arkansas, braiders may not sell their services unless they complete 1,500 hours of government-mandated cosmetology training, not one…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Arkansas Dentistry
Arkansas flat-out bans licensed dental specialists, like orthodontists, from doing even simple dental work outside of their specialty.
Economic Liberty | Eminent Domain | Private Property
Atlantic City Eminent Domain – Birnbaum
An Atlantic City, N.J., man is fighting to save his family home from a state agency’s eminent domain abuse.
Educational Choice | Tax Credit Scholarships
Georgia School Choice
Georgia’s school choice program gives thousands of parents an opportunity to find a school that best fits their children’s needs without using a single cent of state funds.
First Amendment | Political Speech
Minnesota Campaign Speech Limits
A Minnesota regulation dishes out First Amendment rights on a first-come, first-served basis.
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing | Teeth Whitening
Georgia Teeth Whitening
In Georgia, entrepreneurs who offer teeth-whitening services can be charged with a felony, imprisoned for up to five years and fined thousands of dollars. Their crime? Selling the exact same teeth-whitening product sold in stores.
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing | Transportation
Chicago Ridesharing
Armed with little more than their smartphones and cars, a small group of entrepreneurs are driving innovation in an industry that has been dominated by a cartel of cab owners and a regulatory framework originally…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Arizona Animal Massage
Massage therapists do not need a medical degree to massage humans, but entrepreneurs who want to massage animals in Arizona must spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend four years of veterinary school where…
Educational Choice | Publicly Funded Scholarships
North Carolina School Choice
Through the Opportunity Scholarship Program, North Carolina is giving low-income families the same educational choices that wealthier families already enjoy.
Economic Liberty | Food Freedom
Minnesota Cottage Foods
Minnesota has slammed the oven door on bakers trying to make a home-based business out of satisfying Minnesotans’ sweet tooth.
Food Freedom | Private Property | Zoning Justice Project
Florida Vegetable Gardens
Miami Shores Village, Fla.’s unconstitutional ban on front-yard vegetable gardens prohibits homeowners from growing vegetables in their front yards. But trees, fruit and garden gnomes are just fine.
Educational Choice | Tax Credit Scholarships
Alabama School Choice
Alabama has created a unique, refundable tax credit program that offers a lifeline to families to help them escape failing public schools if they lack the financial resources to do so.
Economic Liberty | Hair Braiding | Occupational Licensing
Texas Hair Braiding Instruction
Texas tried to force natural hair braiding schools to convert into fully-equipped barber colleges—solely to teach hair braiding—even though braiders aren’t barbers.
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Michigan Forfeiture
Without warning, the federal government used civil forfeiture to seize all of the money from the Dehkos’ store bank account—more than $35,000—even though they’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.
Economic Liberty | Transportation
Tampa Minimum Fares
The Public Transportation Commission in Hillsborough County, Fla., forces customers to overpay for limousine services and prevents small business owners from offering better deals to potential customers.
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Kentucky Psychology Speech
John Rosemond’s lawsuit defends freedom of speech and freedom of the press from government officials who believe that it can be a crime in America to express an opinion in a newspaper.
Washington Recall 2: Lawyer Free Speech
A government agency whose job it is to limit political debate is now seeking to drastically restrict free civil rights advocacy—advocacy that has guided our nation in living up to its ideals of freedom and…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing | Teeth Whitening
Alabama Teeth Whitening
Alabama’s prohibition on non-dentist teeth whitening has nothing to do with protecting consumers and everything to do with protecting monopoly profits for dentists.
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Health | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Texas Veterinary Speech
The First Amendment should apply to licensed professionals who give advice over the Internet.
4th Amendment Project | Economic Liberty | Private Property | Vending
Chicago Food Trucks
Chicago shouldn’t be in the business of protecting restaurants from food trucks.
Cosmetology | Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Nevada Makeup
The government cannot require teachers to spend hundreds of hours in a classroom to learn skills that have nothing to do with what they teach.
Virginia Certificate of Need
Virginia’s certificate of need program actually makes it illegal to offer new medical services or purchase certain types of medical equipment without first obtaining a special permission slip from the government.
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
North Carolina Free Speech
This caveman blogger fought for free speech and Internet freedom.
Norfolk, VA Sign
In a double blow to free speech and property rights, Norfolk, Va., tried not only to take a thriving business through its power of eminent domain but also censor a highly visible sign that protested…