Institute for Justice

Today a Mississippi medical cannabis dispensary owner is asking the Supreme Court to hear his case challenging the state’s ban on advertising legal medical cannabis businesses. “Mississippi cannot simultaneously create an entire legal marketplace for an industry and then turn around and use an unenforced federal law to prevent those businesses from advertising their state-legal products,” said IJ Sr. Attorney Ari Bargil. “If a business is legal, then the business owner has a First Amendment right to speak truthfully about his or her business.”

There is no better time to pursue justice, instead of billable hours. IJ is #hiring litigation attorneys with at least 2 years of litigation experience for our Arlington, Phoenix, Seattle, and Austin offices. Learn more at ij.org/pathways.

A bipartisan group of Congress members, a slew of politically diverse organizations, and the nation's preeminent Federal Tort Claims Act scholar all agree: Later this term, the Supreme Court should hold that Institute for Justice clients Trina Martin, Gabe Watson, and Toi Cliatt have a remedy under the FTCA after an FBI SWAT team raided their home by mistake. Under the cover of darkness, officers took a battering ram to the family's front door, detonated a flashbang grenade in their living room, and held them at gunpoint until the officers realized they had the wrong house. But when the family sued, the Eleventh Circuit tossed their case—even though Congress specifically amended the FTCA in the 1970s to ensure that federal wrong-house raids would be covered. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court agreed to review that decision. As the bevy of amicus briefs in ???????????? ??. ???? explain, the Eleventh Circuit's ruling ignores Congress's command and reads large swaths of the FTCA out of existence. The Court should set things right. When the government injures the innocent, it must be held accountable. The cross-ideological support in ???????????? shows that this is not a partisan position—it's an American position. You can read more about the briefs in ???????????? here: https://lnkd.in/eRvYPW-j.

Friday, the Supreme Court will consider whether to hear a case that has the potential to overturn one of the Court's most reviled decisions: Kelo v. New London. In the notorious 5-4 Kelo decision, the Court held that “economic development”—the hope of more taxes or jobs—was a constitutionally sufficient reason for government to take property. IJ refused to take this loss as the final word on the matter. Now, the Court will consider whether to hear the case of Bryan Bowers, a New York landowner whose property was seized by a government agency to provide private parking for a nearby private office building.

This week on Short Circuit we welcome on the Institute for Justice's Bobbi Taylor and Paul Sherman for tales of bribery and iPhone non-searches. (Or are they?) Plus, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall makes an appearance. https://lnkd.in/ga694krH

We’re thrilled to announce that IJ's Annual #LawStudent Conference is back! May 30th-June 1st at IJ headquarters in the DC-metro area, students from across the country will gather to learn what law school often does not teach—how to find and litigate public interest cases in the real world. (?? Travel scholarships are still available!) Apply now! #LawStudentConference https://lnkd.in/e5BTruHE

“We’re representing thousands of people in Wisconsin who just want to support themselves by selling homemade food. "If they lived anywhere else but Wisconsin, they would be able to do so. But unfortunately, they live in the state with the most restrictive #CottageFood laws in the country.” —Justin Pearson at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Justin Pearson and I welcomed on the great Robert H. Thomas to discuss a tableaux of property rights issues. We did this via a North Carolina Supreme Court decision about remedies and an Eighth Circuit case about fines and feed lots. Along the way there was some "old" vs. "new" property analysis and a healthy portion of Magna Carta. https://lnkd.in/gDWjXaZD

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Zoning strangles good ideas, from helping pregnant women give birth in a safe comfortable space in Boston to giving the dying a burial option in harmony with nature in Michigan. I wrote about something I saw in the news and also a great Institute for Justice case.