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Rob Johnson

Senior Attorney

Education

Harvard Law School, J.D., 2009
Columbia University, B.A., 2006

Clerkships

Justice Anthony Kennedy, U.S. Supreme Court
Judge Alex Kozinski, Ninth Circuit

Memberships

Licensed in Washington, D.C.
Licensed in Ohio

Rob Johnson is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, where he litigates to protect private property, free speech, and other individual rights.

Rob litigates to ensure that government follows fair procedures and respects individual liberty. For instance, he successfully challenged a law enforcement program that subjected individuals to relentless harassment because a computer algorithm predicted they were likely to commit future crimes. He developed a class-action lawsuit that ended a program under which the NYPD shut down small businesses without a prior hearing based on allegations of wrongdoing by their customers. And he successfully challenged a self-funding civil forfeiture program as a violation of due process. He is currently litigating before the U.S. Supreme Court to defend the right to a real judge and jury when agencies seek to impose monetary fines.

Rob also litigates to uphold the right to financial privacy. He is currently challenging a federal rule that requires money services businesses along the border to report all cash transactions over just $200. Previously, he successfully litigated a Fourth Amendment challenge to the FBI’s dragnet search and seizure of over eight hundred safety deposit boxes. He also represented a series of small business owners who had their entire bank accounts seized by the IRS because of alleged violations of bank reporting laws, and he launched an initiative that resulted in the IRS reopening hundreds of such cases and returning millions of dollars.

Rob’s writing has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Politico, and Reason, among other venues. Rob has testified about occupational licensing before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and has twice testified about civil forfeiture before the House Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee. He has also testified before state legislatures across the country.

From 2014-2017, Rob served as IJ’s first Elfie Gallun Fellow for Freedom and the Constitution. In that role, Rob wrote and spoke about the vital role the U.S. Constitution plays in protecting our most precious freedoms.

Rob lives in Cleveland with his wife and two daughters—all named after characters in Shakespeare plays—and is an amateur large format photographer.

Rob's Cases

Woman Appeals to Get $8,000 Back After Police Seized it Without Charging Her With Any Crime

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property

Woman Appeals to Get $8,000 Back After Police Seized it Without Charging Her With Any Crime

Cristal Starling runs a mobile food cart in Rochester, New York, to provide for herself and her grandnephew. She dreamed of expanding the business into a food truck, and she saved enough money to do just that. But in the fall of 2020, the local police raided her apartment and seized $8,040—the money she was going to use to pursue her dream. She was never charged with or suspected of a crime.
Challenging Wilmington’s tow-and-impound racket, which pays private tow companies by letting them keep and scrap cars.

Fines and Fees | Private Property | Rule of Law

Challenging Wilmington’s tow-and-impound racket, which pays private tow companies by letting them keep and scrap cars.

Wilmington, Delaware partners with a private towing company to tow any car that has more than $200 in unpaid parking fines. The private company makes a profit and Wilmington demands excessive fines in order to get a car back. The disproportionate fines violate the due process rights of citizens, and IJ seeks to end this entire unconstitutional program.

Virginia therapist launches a second First Amendment challenge to protect the right to practice talk therapy online across state lines

Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech

Virginia therapist launches a second First Amendment challenge to protect the right to practice talk therapy online across state lines

Elizabeth Brokamp uses talk therapy to help people improve their lives. When one of her clients relocated to New York she was able to continue speaking with the client online. She’s licensed in Virginia, where she lives, but now New York is demanding she get a license there as well. Elizabeth and IJ partnered to challenge this unnecessary and unreasonable burden.

First Amendment Lawsuit Seeks to Protect the Right to Practice Talk Therapy Across State Lines

Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech

First Amendment Lawsuit Seeks to Protect the Right to Practice Talk Therapy Across State Lines

Elizabeth Brokamp uses talk therapy to help people improve their lives. She’s licensed in Virginia, where she lives, near the border with D.C. But D.C. will not let her see clients online who she could normally meet with in her Virginia office. Elizabeth and IJ partnered to challenge this unnecessary and unreasonable burden.

Coast Guard-empowered private association concocts reasons to keep an experienced captain from working

Economic Liberty | First Amendment | First Amendment Retaliation | Transportation

Coast Guard-empowered private association concocts reasons to keep an experienced captain from working

Captain Matthew Hight thought he would earn a living navigating cargo carriers on the Great Lakes. Instead, an unholy alliance of a federal bureaucracy and a legalized monopoly suddenly rendered him a castaway. Now he’s launching a second voyage with the IJ to get his job back and ensure that no one else has their livelihood taken away because the government has delegated lawmaking power to a self-interested private organization.
Border Patrol Agents Used a Flimsy Excuse to Seize A Man’s Truck, Then Held It for Two Years, Refusing His Requests for a Hearing. He Is Now Appealing His Case to the U.S. Supreme Court, Calling for Prompt Hearings After Vehicle Seizures

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property

Border Patrol Agents Used a Flimsy Excuse to Seize A Man’s Truck, Then Held It for Two Years, Refusing His Requests for a Hearing. He Is Now Appealing His Case to the U.S. Supreme Court, Calling for Prompt Hearings After Vehicle Seizures

Border Patrol Agents used a flimsy excuse to seize Gerardo Serrano’s truck, then held it for two years. IJ asked the Supreme Court to hear Gerardo’s case, but unfortunately the court declined to do so.

Government Unreformed

Civil Forfeiture | Private Property

Government Unreformed

Lyndon McLellan has spent more than a decade running L&M Convenience Mart, a gas station, restaurant, and convenience store in rural Fairmont, North Carolina. Then, one year ago, without any warning, agents from the IRS seized his entire bank account, totalling more than $107,000. With that, Lyndon entered the upside down world of civil forfeiture, where the government can seize and keep ordinary Americans’ property without ever charging them with a crime.
Charting a New Course for Economic Liberty: Challenging Lake Chelan’s Government-Imposed Ferry Monopoly Under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities Clause

Economic Liberty | Transportation

Charting a New Course for Economic Liberty: Challenging Lake Chelan’s Government-Imposed Ferry Monopoly Under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities Clause

Jim and Cliff Courtney have a plan to bring economic prosperity to their small community. Unfortunately, the state of Washington has sunk their plan with a law that requires them to obtain a certificate of “public convenience and necessity” from the state in order to pick up and drop off passengers.

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Rob's Research & Reports

Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing

Boards Behaving Badly

In a nutshell, states should: Charge an independent “licensing ombudsman” with reviewing the actions of state licensing boards; Charge the licensing ombudsman with a mandate to promote economic competition; Make the ombudsman responsible for conducting…

Rob's Amicus Briefs

U.S. v. Bednar

U.S. Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit

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Rob's News, Articles & Publications

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Rob's Hearings

New York Forfeiture Appeal Oral Argument

  • Second Circuit
  • May 3, 2023

Rochester, New York, police seized more than $8,000 from Cristal Starling on the theory that her then-boyfriend was a drug dealer and the money was drug proceeds. In reality, it was legitimate cash that Cristal…

Rob's Letters & Statements

Rob's Podcasts

July 09, 2026

IRS Defeated!  Stolen Money Returned, Law Changed.

Stealing small businesses’ bank accounts and spying on people using cash. It’s the IRS and other agencies run amok.  Today we’re talking with IJ senior […]

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March 29, 2021

“Predictive Policing” Algorithm Creates a Dystopian Nightmare for Residents of This Florida Town

How One Sheriff’s Office Harasses and Arrests Citizens It Suspects of Future Crimes

When the Institute for Justice filed suit against the so-called predictive policing program in Pasco County, Florida, the Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying that […]

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