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
Fines and Fees | Private Property
Small Kentucky Farm Fights Federal Government for a Fair Trial
David and Debbie Ross of Triple R Farms are fighting for their constitutional right to a real court and jury trial.
Private Property | Rental Caps
Lawsuit Challenges New York Law That Keeps Apartments Off the Market During a Housing Crisis
Small property owners challenge New York's rent stabilization laws on vacant apartments, which keep tens of thousands of units empty amid a housing crisis.
4th Amendment Project | Economic Liberty | Private Property
Small Businesses Threatened by Financial Surveillance Order File Suit Against the Federal Government
Money services businesses challenged a federal surveillance order requiring reports on low-dollar cash transactions near the southwest border.
Commercial Speech | Economic Liberty | First Amendment
Small Business Owner Sues Illinois for the Right to Help Property Owners Claim Their Lost Property
Illinois demanded David Knott get a private detective license—complete with training in crime scenes and firearms—just to help people recover their forgotten property.
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Innocent Security Deposit Box Renters Demand FBI Return Missing Property
After giving up on using civil forfeiture to claim their safe deposit boxes, the FBI did not return all of Don, Jeni, and Michael's property. They are suing to get their missing coins and cash…
Lawsuit from Oklahoma Small Business Challenges Administrative Courts Handing Down Ruinous Fines
A small masonry business challenges the constitutionality of agency courts that impose devastating fines without a jury trial or independent court.
Fines and Fees | Private Property
Lawsuit Challenges Department of Labor’s Use of Administrative Law Judges to Hand Down Ruinous Fines
When the Department of Labor fined Chuck Saine over $50,000, the agency’s own employees served as prosecutor, judge, and jury.
Code Enforcement | Fines and Fees | Private Property
California County Caught Fining Innocent Homeowners $10,000 Per Day for Offenses They Did Not Commit
In Humboldt County, the government issues ruinous fines for things people didn’t do because it doesn’t bother to investigate. Innocent landowners then have to appeal the fines to prove their innocence at a hearing the…
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…
Fines and Fees | Private Property
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…
Fines and Fees | Private Property
Family Farm Facing Ruinous Fines Sues Agency that Acts as Prosecutor, Judge and Jury
In 2016, the Department of Labor demanded $550,000 from a family farm in southern New Jersey. In their case, the agency served as prosecutor, judge, and jury, and the agency won every time. The brothers…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Joshua Gray criticized the police—so they denied him an occupational license
Joshua Gray, a private investigator, wanted to expand his business into his home state of Maine. In violation of his First Amendment rights, the state denied his request for a license, because he has criticized…
4th Amendment Project | Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Security Deposit Box Owners Demand FBI Return Property Seized Without a Warrant
FBI agents broke into hundreds of private security deposit box without warrants. Holding government officials accountable for violating Fourth Amendment rights is crucial to ensure similar abuses don’t occur in the future.
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…
4th Amendment Project | Fines and Fees | Private Property
Florida Parents Partner with IJ to Shut Down Dystopian “Predictive Policing” Program
In true dystopian fashion, Pasco County in Florida, harasses people at their own homes through a method called “predictive policing.” The system tramples on the rights of Pasco residents by placing them under near-constant surveillance.
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…
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…
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.
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
IJ to IRS: Give Back This Money
The message from the Institute for Justice, which represents Ken and Randy, to the IRS is simple: If you’ve taken something that doesn’t belong to you, give it back.
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…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech | Tour Guides
Government Cannot Decide Who Is, Or Is Not, Allowed To Tell A Story
Tour guides are storytellers, and the government can’t be in the business of deciding who is (or who is not) allowed to tell stories.
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
HELD UP: Feds Use Civil Forfeiture To Seize More than $446,000 From Innocent Family Business; Deny Hearing for More than Two Years.
The Hirsch brothers have done nothing wrong, yet the IRS seized their entire bank account.
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
TAKEN: Feds Seize Family Restaurant’s Entire Bank Account Innocent Owners Fight Back
The IRS seized Carole’s money using civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement agencies to take cash, cars and other property without so much as charging the property owner with a crime.
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…
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
Havel v. City of Kent Board of Zoning Appeals
Ohio Supreme Court
Sosa v. Martin County
United States Supreme Court
United States v. $69,490.50 in U.S. Currency
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Cleveland Botanical Garden v. Wade
Ohio Supreme Court
Carr v. Saul
Megan Ashley Olson v. One 1999 Lexus
Minnesota Supreme Court
Espinoza v. City of Albuquerque
New Mexico Court of Appeals, Albuquerque
Shannon Nelson and Louis Alonzo Madden v. Colorado
United States Supreme Court
U.S. v. Bednar
U.S. Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit
Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association
US Supreme Court
Obergefell v. Hodges
US Supreme Court
Tony Henderson v. United States of America
U.S. Supreme Court
Rob's News, Articles & Publications
Rob's Hearings
New York Forfeiture Appeal Oral Argument
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 was saving to expand her food cart into a food truck. Nevertheless, and although Cristal’s now-ex-boyfriend was acquitted on drug charges, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration moved to keep Cristal’s money forever using civil forfeiture. Read More
Rob's Letters & Statements
Willoughby Hills Fines & Fees Letter
Willoughby Hills, Ohio
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 […]
Listen NowAugust 09, 2021
These People Lost $85 Million in an L.A. Heist…and the Robber was the FBI
How an illegal search and seizure turned into a federal cash grab
In March 2021, FBI agents broke into private safe deposit boxes at the Southern California business U.S. Private Vaults and—though no individual box owner was […]
Listen NowMarch 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 […]
Listen NowMarch 11, 2021
Talking to a Client in the Wrong Location Makes This Counselor a Criminal
Restrictions on teletherapy hurt people and violate the First Amendment
Elizabeth Brokamp is a professional counselor who just wants to help people at a time when many Americans need it more than ever. But if […]
Listen Now