Washington—A brand-new website, www.ShopInPlaceDC.com, is offering D.C. metro residents a place to find neighborhood small businesses that are still selling products for residents sheltering at home. The website is currently live and welcomes submissions from D.C.-area small businesses selling products in categories such as food, fitness, bath and cleaning products, books, toys and more. The…

Arlington, Va.—Everyone hates robocalls. But last year, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Congress’s attempt to regulate robocalls—through the Telephone Consumer Protection Act— violated the First Amendment. Instead of banning all robocalls, Congress had banned robocalls on some topics while allowing robocalls that discussed other topics (like certain kinds of debt collection).…

CHICAGO—In just seven days online, www.ShopInPlaceChi.com has become a website where Chicago residents can find more than 250 small businesses selling products essential for residents sheltering at home. Tens of thousands of Chicagoans have used the site to search for small businesses by category and neighborhood. The website is free to the public courtesy of…

Arlington, Virginia—This morning the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would review the case of James King, an innocent college student who was savagely beaten in 2014 by a police officer and FBI agent in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after being unreasonably misidentified as a fugitive. The officers were working as members of a joint state-federal police…

Pasadena, Calif.—On Monday, March 30, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will consider a case in which two entrepreneurs have spent 23 years trying to travel 55 miles by boat—and they have yet to reach their destination. Jim and Cliff Courtney from Washington state have endured a 23-year ongoing legal battle for the right to use the nation’s waters in pursuit of a livelihood. But rather…

CHICAGO—A brand new website, www.ShopInPlaceChi.com, is offering Windy City consumers a place to find neighborhood small businesses that are still selling products essential for residents sheltering at home. The website is currently live and welcomes new submissions from Chicago small businesses selling products in categories such as bath and cleaning products, books, educational supplies, games…

Arlington, Va.—Seven years ago, police officers in Fresno, California, executed search warrants on the homes and business of Micah Jessop and Brittan Ashjian, who owned a business operating and servicing ATMs. Police were investigating a report of illegal gambling. Although neither was ever charged with a crime, police seized nearly $275,000 in rare coins the…

Tallahassee, Fla.—Local governments across Florida will no longer be able to ban food trucks or require food truck operators to get an additional local license in order to vend under a bill passed by the Florida House and Senate today. The provision is part of a broader bill to reform occupational licensing in the state…

Tallahassee, Fla.—With House and Senate passage of the Occupational Freedom and Opportunity Act, job-creating licensing reform is now on its way to Gov. DeSantis. The bill, HB 1193, is the product of a years-long effort to reduce occupational licensing burdens for a number of professions. The Institute for Justice (IJ), a non-profit law firm that…

Arlington, Va.—The nation’s best law for homemade food businesses is about to become even better. Today, Gov. Mark Gordon signed HB 84, a bill that will expand the Wyoming Food Freedom Act. Along with 48 other states, Wyoming lets residents sell shelf-stable food made at home, like baked goods, jams, and jellies. But Wyoming Food…

Arlington, Va.— In 2015, an armed shoplifter fleeing the police broke into a Greenwood Village, Colorado, home and refused to come out. After taking gunfire from the shoplifter, the police laid siege to the home. During a 19-hour standoff, officers used explosives, high-caliber ammunition and a battering ram mounted on a tank-like vehicle called a…

Arlington, Va.—Today, a group of parents partnered with the Institute for Justice filed to intervene to defend the Tennessee Education Savings Account Pilot Program, an educational choice initiative, against a lawsuit by the ACLU challenging its constitutionality. The filing follows today’s decision by the Davidson County Chancery Court to permit the same parents to intervene…

PITTSBURGH—Terry Rolin’s life savings of $82,373 will finally be returned to him, nearly six months after it was wrongfully seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from his daughter Rebecca Brown as she traveled through Pittsburgh International Airport to her home in Boston. Without offering any apology for the harm caused by confiscating Terry’s life…

Arlington, Va.—The Wyoming Senate will decide this week whether to expand the state’s popular Food Freedom Law. The Food Freedom Law, which is the most permissive homemade food law in the country, allows the sale of homemade food, drinks and meals directly to consumers. Now, HB0084 would expand the law to allow the sale of…

Atlanta, Ga.—The Georgia Supreme Court denied an appeal in a case challenging whether the Georgia General Assembly should be exempt from the public records law. While the Georgia Open Records Act subjects “every state office” to its requirements, the Fifth Division of the Court of Appeals of Georgia ruled last year that “The General Assembly…

Today, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) formally announced that it voted to adopt a new formula for determining the timing of traffic lights. The vote vindicates the theory of Mats Järlström, who was fined $500 by the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying for publicly criticizing traffic light timing without…

Arlington, Va.—A federal judge dismissed a Maryland farmer’s suit against the FDA filed in order to protect his right to accurately label his all-natural skim milk. Current FDA regulations require that dairy products labelled as skim milk also contain synthetic vitamins. Randy Sowers, represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ), filed a federal lawsuit in…

Arlington, Virginia—Will the law enforcement officers who mercilessly beat James King—an innocent college student—be held accountable for their actions? Or will they be allowed to continue to hide behind special legal protections afforded to members of state/federal police task forces to escape justice? Last Friday, the Institute for Justice (IJ), which represents King, filed a…

Mandan, N.D.—Today, the lawsuit brought by Lonesome Dove saloon owners Brian Berube and August “Augie” Kersten has formally come to an end. Along with the Institute for Justice (IJ), Brian and Augie sued Mandan for trying to ban their mural because it was “intended to advertise an establishment.” Not only did their lawsuit save Lonesome…

Today, after illegally seizing and holding Robert Reeves’s 1991 Chevrolet Camaro for the last seven months, Detroit police agreed to return it along with $2,280 in cash they seized from him in July 2019. He picked up the car this morning. The police’s sudden change of heart comes on the heels of a federal class…