Robert McNamara serves as the Institute for Justice’s Deputy Litigation Director. He helps guide IJ’s overall litigation strategy while also litigating cutting-edge constitutional cases protecting free speech, property rights, economic liberty, and other individual liberties in both federal and state courts.
Robert’s work has resulted in court victories for property owners fighting eminent domain abuse, tour guides fighting unconstitutional restrictions on their speech, taxi drivers seeking the right to own their own business, cancer patients seeking the right to pay bone-marrow donors, and many others. His current cases focus on defending private property rights, innovation in medical care and telemedicine, and the First Amendment right of all Americans to provide their opinions on important topics like engineering or the law without first obtaining a government license.
Robert’s writing has been published by outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and dozens more nationwide. His opinions and views on legal issues have been featured in radio and television programs ranging from National Public Radio’s All Things Considered to CBS Sunday Morning.
Robert is a graduate of Boston University and the New York University School of Law. He currently lives in Virginia with his wife and children.
Robert's Cases
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Bowers v. Oneida County Industrial Development Agency
Can the government take your property just to hand it over to your business competitor? That is the question New York developer Bryan Bowers is asking the United States Supreme Court after New York’s courts…
Other Property Rights Abuses | Private Property
Oklahoma Takings
Courts say Okay, Oklahoma owes Melisa Robinson for damaging her property. But the city won't pay. That violates her Fifth Amendment right to just compensation.
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
DeVillier v. Texas
Supreme Court Argument Victory! On April 16th, the Supreme Court vacated the Fifth Circuit decision and ruled the Devillier family can sue Texas for flooding caused by the state. Resources Brief for Petitioners…
First Amendment | Occupational Speech
Right to Provide Legal Advice
Robert McNamara Rev. John S. Udo-Okon at Word of Life International Church in the Bronx When wealthy Americans face legal troubles, they have a lot of sources of advice. Legions of lawyers, business consultants,…
First Amendment | First Amendment Retaliation
Wisconsin Defamation
National Public Interest Law Firm Joins Fight to End Retaliatory Defamation Lawsuit in Wisconsin. IJ Defends a Community Activist Against a Village Attorney’s Frivolous and Retaliatory Defamation Lawsuit…
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
Midland Prosecutor
Everybody knows your prosecutor can’t also be your judge. Everyone, that is, except for former Midland County, Texas, prosecutor Ralph Petty, his supervisor, and the county’s entire system of justice. Petty spent 20 years moonlighting…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Gray v. Maine Dept. of Public Safety
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…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
North Carolina Engineering Speech
Wayne Nutt is a retired engineer who still talks about engineering and wanted to testify as an expert witness in a case that involved engineering issues. The state of North Carolina argued Wayne’s testimony was…
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property | SWAT Destruction
Baker v. City of McKinney — Texas SWAT Destruction
Police destroyed Vicki Baker’s home while pursuing a fugitive, costing her tens of thousands of dollars and leaving her daughter’s dog with hearing loss. The city refused to pay for the damage it caused. IJ…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
D.C. Teletherapy
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…
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
West v. Winfield
If you tell police they can go into your home, does that mean they can also legally stand outside and pepper it with shotgun-fired tear gas grenades—destroying everything inside? That is the question asked by…
Immunity and Accountability | Private Property
Lech v. City of Greenwood Village
Police destroyed the home of Leo and Alfonsina Lech while pursuing a fugitive and refused to pay for the damage that was caused. While the Supreme Court declined to hear the Lechs’ case, IJ is…
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Woodcrest Homes, Inc. v. Carousel Farms Metro. Dis
Imagine if two of your neighbors got together, claimed they established a new town, and then “voted” to take your property from you using eminent domain. Crazy, right? Not in Colorado, where the owners of…
Granite City Compulsory Evictions
Granite City, Illinois is trying to kick Andy Simpson and Debi Brumit out of their home for a crime they didn’t commit. Andy and Debi are fighting back with IJ to uphold the basic principle…
Indiana Eyeglasses
Indiana bans healthcare providers from conducting online eye tests, to protect established businesses from competition.
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Pennsylvania Pipeline Eminent Domain
A pipeline company abused eminent domain to take property from the Erbs without paying them for the taking. IJ petitioned the Supreme Court to take the Erbs’ case, but unfortunately the court declined to hear…
Government Gag Orders
Government officials cannot be allowed to use the threat of overwhelming penalties and costly litigation to coerce people into forfeiting their First Amendment rights to speak freely. That is why the Cato Institute has joined…
Commercial Speech | First Amendment | Other Property Rights Abuses | Private Property
Virginia Books
Valancourt Books, in Richmond, Virginia, has partnered with IJ to challenge a federal law that requires book publishers to provide two free copies of every book it publishes or face fines that could total in…
Civil Forfeiture | Private Property
Cleveland Forfeiture
Rustem Kazazi, a retired police officer from Albania, who now leaves in a Cleveland suburb, was flying home to Albania when Customs and Border Patrol stripped him naked and took his family’s money through the…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing
Washington, D.C. Day Care Education
D.C. recently decided to require day care workers to have a college degree. This is an unreasonable regulation drives up child care costs and deprives day care workers of their ability to earn an honest…
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Jarreau v. South LaFourche Levee District
On behalf of a Louisiana dirt farmer, IJ filed a cert petition to the United States Supreme Court to determine if the government must pay you for losses incurred when it destroys your business through…
Economic Liberty | Health | Occupational Licensing
South Carolina Eyeglasses
Similar Cases Complaint Latest Release…
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing | Transportation
Bowling Green Taxis
It is unconstitutional for the government to use its power to protect itself and other established businesses from competition. That is why Green Cab has partnered with the Institute for Justice (“IJ”) to challenge Bowling…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech | Tour Guides
Savannah Tour Guides
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.
Economic Liberty | Eminent Domain | Private Property
Atlantic City Eminent Domain – Birnbaum
An Atlantic City, N.J., man is fighting to save his family home from a state agency’s eminent domain abuse.
Economic Liberty | Occupational Licensing | Transportation
Chicago Ridesharing
Armed with little more than their smartphones and cars, a small group of entrepreneurs are driving innovation in an industry that has been dominated by a cartel of cab owners and a regulatory framework originally…
Economic Liberty | Transportation
Tampa Minimum Fares
The Public Transportation Commission in Hillsborough County, Fla., forces customers to overpay for limousine services and prevents small business owners from offering better deals to potential customers.
Cosmetology | Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
Nevada Makeup
The government cannot require teachers to spend hundreds of hours in a classroom to learn skills that have nothing to do with what they teach.
Robert's Research & Reports
Immunity and Accountability
Unaccountable
The largest ever study of qualified immunity cases, Unaccountable finds the doctrine shields a wider array of officials and conduct than commonly thought while unacceptably burdening victims of government abuse and failing at its goals.
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Expropriation in Puerto Rico
In a new report (released August 6), the Institute for Justice (IJ) gives Puerto Rico’s eminent domain laws a grade of “F.” IJ is a nonprofit, civil liberties law firm dedicated to ending eminent domain…
Economic Liberty
No Brotherly Love for Entrepreneurs
At nearly every level, Philadelphia’s city government and related bureaucracies operate with a one-word vocabulary: Whatever the question is, the answer is “No.” From zoning to permitting to occupational licensing, would-be entrepreneurs hear that answer…
Other
Getting Beyond Guns
The Fourteenth Amendment represents a deliberate decision by the people of this nation to make the U.S. Constitution—not state constitutions and not state officials— the primary guardian of liberty in America. The purpose of the…
Eminent Domain | Private Property
Building Empires, Destroying Homes
New York is perhaps the worst state in the nation when it comes to eminent domain abuse. Government jurisdictions and agencies statewide have condemned or threatened to condemn homes and small businesses for the New…
Robert's Amicus Briefs
Ariyan v. Sewerage & Water Board
5th Circuit Court of Appeals
FIRE v. Victim Rights Law Center
U.S. Supreme Court
CHIP et al. v. City of New York
2nd Circuit Court of Appeals
Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid
U.S. Supreme Court
Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants
Violet Dock Port v. Heaphy
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
NIFLA v. Becerra
U.S. Supreme Court
Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida
U.S. Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit
Obergefell v. Hodges
US Supreme Court
Serafine v. Branaman
US Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit
Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida
US Court of Appeals 11th Circuit
Welch v. Brown
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
United States v. Windsor
US Supreme Court
Coy A. Koontz, Jr., v. St. Johns River Water Management District
U.S. Supreme Court
Armour v. City of Indianapolis
Tuck-It-Away, Inc. v. NY State Urban Development Corp.
Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corporation
New York Supreme Court
Otis McDonald et al. v. City of Chicago
Supreme Court
Otis Mcdonald et al v. City of Chicago
Supreme Court
District of Columbia v. Heller
Supreme Court
Robert's News, Articles & Publications
Robert's Hearings
D.C. Tour Guides Oral Argument
IJ joined with Tonia Edwards and Bill Main, the owners and operators of a Segway tour company, to challenge a District of Columbia law that made it illegal for anyone to give a tour of the city for compensation without first passing a test and obtaining a special license—quite literally, a license to describe. Read More
DeVillier v. Texas Supreme Court Hearing
Richie DeVillier’s family has lived on their cattle ranch outside Winnie, Texas since the 1920s. Historically, rainwater on their land flowed naturally to the Gulf of Mexico. However, after the Texas Department of Transportation renovated a highway bordering their land, installing a three-foot-high concrete barrier along the highway, the dynamics changed. Read More