BREAKING LAWSUIT: Atlanta Citizens Fight Back Against Forfeiture Abuse

Georgia has some of the worst civil forfeiture laws and practices in the country.  This morning, five Atlanta citizens teamed up with the Institute for Justice to change that.
Civil forfeiture threatens the property rights of all Americans.  These laws allow government officials to seize your home, car, cash or other property upon the mere suspicion [...]

Why are California Republicans Permitting Eminent Domain Abuse?

Partisan politics shouldn’t stand in the way of protecting private property rights.   Unfortunately in California, Republicans are siding with bureaucracy, Big Government and eminent domain abuse.

In an effort to close the state’s budget gap, Governor Brown has proposed eliminating California’s 400+ redevelopment agencies.  Redevelopment in California is a $1.7 billion, state-subsidized boondoggle.

Sadly, only one Republican [...]

BIG NEWS: Federal Court Halts Shocking Property Rights Abuse

You really have to see this one to believe it:

The video above was just released by the Institute for Justice. It begins with an elderly woman lamenting:
When my son came back from Kuwait he couldn’t believe it.  He said, “Mom, what’s going on?” And I said, well they want to get rid of us and [...]

CAUGHT ON TAPE: Police Stealing Property, Abusing Forfeiture

In Michigan, police were caught on tape stealing private property:
What do you want to take in the basement?  Do you want to take the drums and all that (expletive), or no?
The police took three pages worth of property that included a 52” flat-screen TV, a DVD player, two computers, a camera and several DVDs.

Why does [...]

SAVING LIVES: Cancer Patients Unite, Sue Federal Government

There’s a bad law on the books that is costing lives every single day.
Cancer patients from around the country have teamed up with a world-famous doctor, a non-profit and the Institute for Justice in a major federal lawsuit against the U.S. Attorney General to change that.
This week, we argued before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court [...]

Licensing Gone Wild: Government Bureaucrats Shut Down 82-Year-Old Barber

Dale Smith has been cutting hair for over 50 years.  The Oregon barber is well-known in his hometown for walk-in appointments and $8 cuts — at least, until he got shut down by bureaucrats from Oregon’s Board of Cosmetology.
Dale’s crime?  He forgot to renew the barber license he earned 54 years ago.
The bureaucrats are saying [...]

MEAN STREETS: IJ Launches National Defense of Food Vendors

The Institute for Justice has been vindicating the rights of entrepreneurs for the last twenty years.
Across the country, IJ has teamed up with casket makers, florists, hairbraiders, horse teeth-floaters, interior designers, sign-hangers, taxi-drivers, trash haulers, vintners and numerous other Americans to secure their basic right to earn an honest living.
This week, we are proud to [...]

Puppies + Bureaucrats = Federal Free Speech Lawsuit

What do you get when you mix bureaucrats with a bunch of adorable puppies?
In Kim Houghton’s case, you get a major First Amendment lawsuit.

Kim Houghton decided after a successful, 20-year career in advertising that she wanted more.  She wanted to realize her American Dream and become an entrepreneur in a business focused on dogs.
She had [...]

Can a City’s Budget Priorities Trump the Constitution?

On Tuesday the Institute for Justice went to federal court to find out.

Two years ago IJ teamed up with three Philadelphia tour guides to file a major First Amendment lawsuit seeking to vindicate the freedom to speak in Philadelphia.
Ann Boulais, Mike Tait and Josh Silver sued because officials passed a law making it illegal for [...]

Texas Entrepreneurs Win Fight for Economic Liberty

Carl Mitz is a third-generation horseman.  The Texan is widely known as one of the nation’s best horse dentists.  He’s treated the teeth of over 100,000 horses and has clients in over 30 states.
But Texas bureaucrats tried for years to shut him down.
In a classic case of economic protectionism, Carl and all other Texas equine [...]

Licensing Gone Wild: Armed Government Agents Raiding Barber Shops

Let’s say you have a knack for cutting hair.  If you live in Florida, guess how many hours of government-mandated instruction you’d be forced to sit through before you can become a barber?
1,200.
That’s right, well over a thousand hours.  Plus, you’d have to pay thousands of dollars to cover the cost of your classes and [...]

How to Keep Politics a Game of Special Interests and Insiders

Hey mom and dads, it’s election week!  Does your child like to argue?  Does he like to boss his younger siblings around?  Does he love the sound of his own voice?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, your child is a natural born politician.  Now to ensure his success in the political world, [...]

Why Can’t Chuck Get His Business Off the Ground?

Nationwide, government at every level is requiring more and more of the workforce to get its permission just to earn a living.
In the 1950s, only about 5 percent of the workforce needed a government license to do their job. Today, that number is over 30 percent.  And governments impose all kinds of other [...]

Bulldozing Free Speech on Eminent Domain Abuse

Carla Main wrote an outstanding book called Bulldozed.  A veteran journalist, she brought to life a heart-wrenching, true-life tale of eminent domain abuse in a Texas fishing town.  She told the truth.  And for that, she’s being sued.
Today, Carla is fighting back.
Eminent domain abuse is what happens when land-hungry private developers team up with tax-hungry [...]

Talk About the Bill of Rights, Get 90 Days in Jail

In Washington, DC, talking about the Bill of Rights can land you in jail for 90 days.
Our nation’s capital has a licensing scheme in place that makes it illegal for anyone to “guide or escort” anyone else for hire without first getting the government’s permission. To get the license, which the Washington Post [...]

‘The Mother of the Freedom Movement,’ Her Neighborhood Needs YOUR Help

55 years ago, Rosa Parks helped launch the modern civil rights movement.
Today, the government is bulldozing her old neighborhood.  Here’s the real kicker:  The homeowners are forced to pay the cost of demolition.

Nobel prize-winning libertarian economist F.A. Hayek famously wrote that “the great aim of the struggle for liberty has been equality before the law.”  [...]

Public School FAIL: Video Clip That Will Shock, Sadden You

On June 5, Andrew Coulson posted a disturbing graph at Big Government:

He showed that public education costs are skyrocketing while student achievement remains flat.  In another graph in the same post, he showed that the public school bureaucracy is growing TEN times as fast as the student body.
The bottom line:  The growth and cost of [...]

Licensing Gone Wild: Monks Face Jail for Selling Caskets

Abbot Justin Brown and his fellow monks are being threatened with crippling fines and even jail time.  Their crime?  Selling caskets.
Today, they are fighting back in a big way.

In 1889, a group of monks from Indiana fulfilled their dream of establishing a monastery in the Gulf South.  The monastic lifestyle they embody is simple and [...]

Licensing Gone Wild: Government Bureaucrats Shut Down Crying Little Girl’s Lemonade Stand

Julie Murphy is only seven years old, but she embodies the classic American zeal for entrepreneurship.
She learned about lemonade stands after seeing one in a cartoon.  She got excited and wanted to open one of her own.  And so Julie’s mother worked with her to get everything together and set up shop at a fair [...]

Supreme Court to Consider School Tax-Credit Program

Today the Institute for Justice filed opening briefs in our fourth case to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court.
IJ’s first trip to the high court came in 2002 and resulted in a landmark victory for school choice.  We also won our second U.S. Supreme Court case, defending the American ideals of economic liberty and unfettered [...]

Institute for Justice: The Power of One Entrepreneur Campaign

If government is serious about job creation, it should get out of the way of the entrepreneurs who actually create them.
That is the message of a new campaign launched this week by the Institute for Justice—the nation’s leading legal advocate for economic liberty. A series of studies called The Power of One Entrepreneur highlight the [...]

Bookmark Makenolaw.org: Join the Nationwide Fight to Save Free Speech

There’s a new site to add to your blogroll:  Congress Shall Make No Law.

The site, which has the address makenolaw.org, empowers grassroots activists from around the country that are standing up and saying no to unconstitutional attacks on free speech coming in the guise of campaign finance reform.  The site explains all the latest news [...]

FREE TRADE BAN: 90 Days in Jail? Farmers Fight Back

Should farmers get thrown in jail for 90 days and hit with $1,000 in fines for engaging in free trade?
Unfortunately, that’s the law in Lake Elmo, Minnesota.
And that is why the farmers are fighting back.  Tuesday they rallied [check out the pictures here], coming from around the state to secure their constitutional rights.  Yesterday, the [...]

KELO: Five Years Later

The Little Pink House that changed America still stands strong.
Five years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued what would soon become one of the most despised decisions in its history.  In a controversial 5-4 opinion, the Court ruled in Kelo v. City of New London that governments could take your home—or business, farm [...]

Local Government Run Amok, Example #17,568: Dallas Sign Ban

Showing complete disregard for the free speech rights of small business owners, the City of Dallas bans businesses from putting commercial signs in the upper two-thirds of any window or glass door, and on more than 15 percent of any window or glass door. Only ineffective signs are allowed by the government: tiny [...]