Charlestown, Ind.—Today, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that the City of Charlestown must follow the state of Indiana’s Unsafe Building Law, a state statute that gives property owners procedural protections from overzealous city code enforcement. The decision on the neighborhood’s preliminary injunction now goes back to Judge Jason Mount to rule on how the Unsafe…

Arlington, Va.—The case of Tyson Timbs v. State of Indiana, which will be argued this fall before the U.S. Supreme Court, tells an all-too-familiar tale of opioid addiction and recovery in America. But this story has an important constitutional twist that may help protect millions of Americans from the abuse of government-imposed fines and fees,…

Carolina Beach, N.C.—Last night, after an extended meeting behind closed doors, the Carolina Beach town council repealed a law that makes it illegal to operate a food truck in the town unless the owner also owns a brick-and-mortar restaurant in town. The unanimous vote came a week after the Institute for Justice (IJ) partnered with…

Gov. Phil Murphy conditionally vetoed a bill (A-3754) on Monday that would have let African-style natural hair braiders practice their craft without a license. In New Jersey, braiders can only work legally if they are licensed cosmetologists, which requires at least 1,200 hours of training and can cost upwards of $17,000 in tuition. Several braiders…

Carolina Beach, N.C.—Variety is the spice of life, unless you live in the small beach community of Carolina Beach, North Carolina, where the town council has made it nearly impossible for food truck owners from neighboring towns to operate. Thankfully, the North Carolina state constitution makes that kind of economic protectionism illegal. So, today, a…

Portland, Maine—Today, three families represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ) and the First Liberty Institute (FLI) filed a federal lawsuit alleging that a Maine law that excludes parents from participating in the state’s school tuition program because they chose religious schools for their children, violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of free exercise of religion…

Richmond, Va.—The U.S. Copyright Office is demanding copies of hundreds of books published by a small Richmond publisher, Valancourt Books. If Valancourt doesn’t send the books, they could be subject to six figures in fines. But there’s a problem: Valancourt doesn’t have the books. They are a print-on-demand publisher, and giving the federal government free…

Like other schools in Washington state, Summit Christian Academy, a K-12 private school in Spokane, would like to hire college students as tutors under the state’s Work-Study Program. But because Summit is a religious school, it is barred by the government from doing so, even if those students would be tutoring in subjects such as…

San Juan, Puerto Rico—Today, the Puerto Rico Supreme Court rejected a teachers’ union’s challenge to the Free School Selection Program, and declared the program constitutional. As a result, up to 10,000 Puerto Rican families will be able to apply for government scholarships to send their children to the private or public schools of their choice.…

San Juan, Puerto Rico—Hoy el Tribunal Supremo rechazó el desafió de un sindicato de maestros contra el Programa de Libre Selección de Escuelas y declaró que el programa es constitucional. Como resultado de ello, hasta 10.000 familias puertorriqueñas podrán solicitar becas del gobierno para enviar a sus hijos la escuela pública o privada de su…

Arlington, Va.– Las leyes de expropiación forzosa de Puerto Rico recibieron una calificación de F en un reporte publicado hoy por el Institute for Justice, una organización sin fines de lucro y firma legal de libertades civiles dedicada a erradicar la expropiación (o el “dominio eminente” como se conoce en los Estados Unidos) de manera…

Arlington, Va.– Puerto Rico’s eminent domain laws received a grade of “F” in a report released today by the Institute for Justice (IJ), a nonprofit, civil liberties law firm dedicated to ending eminent domain abuse: when the government seizes private property not for traditional public uses, but for private development. The report examines Puerto Rico’s…

Charleston, S.C.—In a sweeping victory for free-speech rights, Judge David Norton of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina today issued an opinion holding that the City of Charleston’s licensing requirement for tour guides violates the First Amendment. The licensing law was challenged by three would-be tour guides—Kimberly Billups, Michael Warfield and…

CHICAGO—Creative entrepreneurs on Chicago’s South Side are busy preparing to demonstrate that they have the most promising idea in order to win the fifth annual South Side Pitch business competition. Since its inception, the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship-hosted competition has been a powerful demonstration that the South Side is home to innovative individuals…

Imagine living in a neighborhood dominated by expensive restaurants with poor service and lackluster food. You see an opportunity and decide to open your own restaurant, but when you apply for your basic business license, a regulator says “there are already enough restaurants in your neighborhood and your competition might put them out of business,”…

In a ruling likely to have national implications, today a federal judge in Albuquerque has found that the city’s civil forfeiture program is unconstitutional. The ruling sets a precedent that calls into question countless other civil forfeiture programs across the country. “Today’s ruling is a total victory for fairness, due process and property owners everywhere,”…

Richmond, Va.—In Virginia, you can teach anyone anything—except how to earn an honest living. That’s the lesson Jon and Tracy McGlothian learned when they tried to open a school to teach job skills to adults in their Virginia Beach community. Yet the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has made it virtually impossible…

Baton Rouge, LA—Today, after waging a two-year legal battle with the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology, a group of eyebrow threaders who challenged the state licensing requirement have received some of the first permits to thread eyebrows. Today also marks a moment when eyebrow threaders across the state are finally going back to work. That’s…

San Juan, Puerto Rico—On Friday, the Puerto Rico Supreme Court agreed to immediately hear a case concerning the constitutionality of Puerto Rico’s new Free School Selection Program. The Program, passed into law in March, grants eligible families scholarships to send their child to the private or public school of their choice. The Court of the…

San Juan, Puerto Rico—El viernes pasado, el Tribunal Supremo de Puerto Rico expidió un auto urgente y anunció que el Tribunal determinará la constitucionalidad del Programa de Libre Selección de Escuelas en Puerto Rico. El programa, aprobado en marzo, otorga becas a familias necesitadas para enviar a sus hijos a la escuela privada o pública…