Jeff Rowes serves as a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice. His practice focuses on private property rights, free speech, and economic liberty.
Jeff currently represents cancer patients and their families, a prominent doctor, and a California nonprofit organization in a path-breaking constitutional challenge to the federal criminal ban on compensation for lifesaving bone marrow donors.
Jeff represents the monks of Saint Joseph Abbey in their federal constitutional challenge to Louisiana laws that make it a crime for the monks to sell their handmade wooden caskets to the public.
In the area of property rights, Jeff represents the Community Youth Athletic Center, a boxing and mentoring program for at-risk youth in National City, California near San Diego. National City, which declared the gym and hundreds of other properties “blighted,” approved a plan to seize the gym and transfer its land to a private developer so he can build luxury condos for the wealthy. He also successfully represented the elderly and working-class families of the beachfront MTOTSA neighborhood in Long Branch, N.J., which was rescued from the private developer’s wrecking ball.
In his First Amendment practice, Jeff successfully represented Chris Pagan before the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Pagan’s First Amendment suit against Glendale, Ohio for banning automobile “for sale” signs from parked cars. The 8-7 decision affirmed that commercial speech warrants important constitutional protection.
Jeff has published opinion pieces on constitutional law in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and many other outlets.
A native of Alberta, Canada, Jeff dropped out of high school at 17, moved to the mountains to teach skiing, backpacked in Asia for six months, and then attended the University of Alberta, after which he lived two years in Japan as a translator. He came to the United States to pursue educational opportunities and fell in love with American principles of liberty. He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School in 2002 where he was extensively involved in law and economics. He also holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Chicago in law and philosophy. Before coming to the Institute, Jeff clerked for Judge Will Garwood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Chief Judge Patricia Fawsett of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
When he’s not fighting for his clients’ rights, Jeff hangs out with his wife and baby son, rock climbs and competes in ironman- distance triathlons.
Jeff's Cases
Educational Choice | Publicly Funded Scholarships
Alaska School Choice
As a sparsely populated state, Alaska faces unique challenges in ensuring that all children can receive an education. To address this concern, the state created “correspondence programs,” in which a student’s public school used the…
Educational Choice | Publicly Funded Scholarships
New Hampshire School Choice
New Hampshire families are poised to defend the state’s Education Freedom Accounts (EFA) from a legal challenge.
First Amendment | Immunity and Accountability
Arrested and Prosecuted for his Reporting, Citizen Journalist Defends His First Amendment Rights with Federal Lawsuit
Justin Pulliam, a citizen journalist in Texas, was arrested and prosecuted for his reporting on the activities of the Fort Bend County Sheriff. He is defending his First Amendment rights with a federal lawsuit.
First Amendment | Immunity and Accountability | Political Speech
East Cleveland’s Government Weaponized its Police to Punish a Political Opponent. He’s Fighting to Hold It Accountable.
Cities can’t use the police to punish political speech.
Other Property Rights Abuses | Private Property | Right to Shelter
North Carolina Shelter Sues for Right to Offer Private Charity on Private Property
The town of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina attempted to block the only homeless shelter in the county from opening its doors at a new location, relying on bogus claims that the shelter would be “unharmonious”…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment
State Funeral Bureau opposes resurgence of a meaningful American tradition
Akhila Murphy and Donna Peizer are end of life doulas – they offer families assistance during at-home funerals. They don’t direct funerals, but California has argued they are acting as unlicensed funeral directors. With the…
Commercial Speech | First Amendment
An Arizona county uses its zoning code to suspend constitutional rights
Yavapai County’s zoning system almost crippled Joshua’s and Emily’s wedding retreat business that they were running on their property. The pandemic made it impossible to pursue their legal claims, and so we voluntarily dismissed their…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Utah Private Investigators
Jeremy Barnes is a former police officer who runs his own private investigator company in Idaho, near the Utah border. Utah has prevented Jeremy from earning an honest living because he lives three minutes across…
Economic Liberty | Vending
No Day at the Beach for South Padre Island’s Food Trucks
South Padre Island caps the number of food trucks in town at 12 and requires that all food trucks have a restaurant owner’s sign off on their permit applications. The Texas Constitution prevents the government…
Other Property Rights Abuses | Private Property | Right to Shelter
Akron Homeless Advocate Sues for Right to Shelter the Homeless
Sage Lewis is using his commercial property to build a community for those experiencing homelessness, with the hope of helping them transition from the streets to permanent housing. The city of Akron is attempting to…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Health | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Texas Veterinarian Renews Fight to Give Professional Advice Online
Ron Hines is a veterinarian who offers advice online to customers all over the country, but Texas said his speech was illegal. Now his case can move ahead on First Amendment grounds.
Code Enforcement | Fines and Fees | Private Property
Eminent Domain in Disguise: Putting an End to Charlestown, Ind.’s Unconstitutional Home Inspection Scheme
A small-town mayor in rural Indiana has made it his personal mission to oust the residents of a tight-knit working-class neighborhood, bulldoze their homes and build a fancy new subdivision for much wealthier people. The…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Burying Alabama’s Casket-Sales Cartel
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Archdiocese of Newark Seeks to Bury New Jersey’s Anticompetitive Headstone Law
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Psychology Board Censors Advice Column: America’s Longest-Running Advice Columnist Files Free Speech Lawsuit After Being Threatened with Jail and Told to Stop Publishing His Column in Kentucky
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.
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Health | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Retired Texas Vet’s Free-Speech Fight to Keep Helping Animals
The First Amendment should apply to licensed professionals who give advice over the Internet.
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Caveman Blogger Fights for Free Speech and Internet Freedom: Challenging the Government’s Authority to Censor Ordinary Advice
This caveman blogger fought for free speech and Internet freedom.
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Free the Monks and Free Enterprise: Challenging Louisiana’s Casket Cartel
Economic Liberty | Health
Saving Lives: Challenging the Federal Ban on Compensating Bone Marrow Donors
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Knocking Out Eminent Domain Abuse: Youth Gym Files Suit Against National City, Calif.
After decades of keeping two-thirds of the city under a bogus “blight” designation, National City, Calif., applied to renew the blight label to prevent it from expiring. That renewal would have reauthorized the city to…
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Eminent Domain Abuse in Long Branch, N.J.: City Seeks to Kick Out Middle Class Along Oceanfront To Make Way For the Rich
Economic Liberty
Challenging Barriers To Economic Opportunity
Commercial Speech | First Amendment | Sign Codes
Banning “For Sale” Signs: The Latest Sign of a Growing Nanny State
Jeff's Research & Reports
Economic Liberty
No Work in Newark
This study examines grassroots entrepreneurship in Newark and offers practical recommendations on how the city, which has become synonymous with urban dysfunction, could reform its laws and practices to encourage more small businesses to operate…
Jeff's Amicus Briefs
Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida
U.S. Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit
Obergefell v. Hodges
US Supreme Court
Welch v. Brown
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corporation
New York Supreme Court