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If police destroyed your home while chasing a fugitive, would the government pay for the damage? All too often, the answer is no. A first-of-its-kind national study from the Institute for Justice set out to answer how often people ask for compensation when law enforcement damages their property, and how often the government says no.  I’m Kim Norberg of the Institute for Justice, joined by co-host Keith Neely. Today we’re digging into IJ’s new report and a couple outrageous cases of innocent people left to bear the cost of public safety alone. We’re joined by data scientist Jason Tiezzi and IJ attorney Jeff Redfern.  https://youtu.be/b790NhzTTbo Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now

Millions of Americans face serious legal problems every year without a lawyer—often because the legal system has made help too expensive and too hard to find. As a result, they face the legal system on their own or give up entirely, often missing important rights or obligations they didn’t know they had. IJ’s new initiative, Counsel Unbound, is changing that by breaking the lawyer cartel.  Today we’re talking with IJ’s Director of Activism Jenny McDonald and Deputy Litigation Director Bob McNamara about why legal advice is speech, how lawyers created their own monopoly, and how IJ protects people who want to help others navigate the law.  https://youtu.be/euDRafXTXy4

Teaching kids to swim in a backyard pool is an American tradition, but one South Carolina city has now banned backyard swim lessons. Libby Souder taught one-on-one swim lessons for a few hours a day until a neighbor complained—before he even moved in.  Today we talk with IJ attorneys Renée Flaherty and Robert Fellner to discuss how cities make harmless home businesses illegal and how IJ fights back.   https://youtu.be/cpYMCcA-MYg Related Case Read more Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now

We are headed back to the U.S. Supreme Court with three cases in the next term. Today, we’re discussing two of those cases, which could have major implications for private property, agency power, and individual rights. One case asks whether property owners can be forced to pay huge legal bills just to get fair compensation when their land is taken. The other asks whether the government can drag Americans into agency-run courts instead of real ones.  Today we are talking with  IJ Senior Attorneys Robert McNamara and Rob Johnson.  https://youtu.be/TIxGlClGiHI Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now

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 attorneys Dan Alban and Rob Johnson about how the IRS used “structuring” laws to take money from people who did nothing wrong. We’ll also cover IJ’s fight against new rules that sweep ordinary cash transactions into a financial surveillance dragnet—and what all of this means for people who use cash or run a small business. https://youtu.be/UkcVlKFG_H4 Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now

Mike DiGiacomo and his siblings turned the basement of their father’s old barbershop building into a barber-themed speakeasy. But their attempt to honor their father became a legal battle when Nebraska’s Barber Board told them to change the name or possibly go to jail.  Today we’re talking with IJ deputy litigation director Robert McNamara and IJ attorney Nick DeBenedetto about an outrageous case of licensing board censorship.  https://youtu.be/5NuqFA7vGVY Related Case Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now

In America, police and prosecutors can take your cash, your car, or even your home through a legal process called civil forfeiture—without convicting or even charging you with a crime. When they do, victims face a maze of short deadlines, complicated paperwork, and a system built so that the government often wins by default.  The Institute for Justice leads the fight against this abuse, in part by publishing Policing for Profit: the best and most complete analysis of civil forfeiture across all 50 states and the federal government. And we’ve just released the Fourth Edition.  Today we talk with IJ’s Senior Director of Strategic Research Lisa Knepper and IJ senior attorney Kirby West. We’re breaking down what the report found, how we built it, and what forfeiture looks like from the perspective of the people who have had property taken and had to fight to get it back.  https://youtu.be/KhXDBOJcXzY Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now

When an Arizona educator named “Fernie” Madrid ran for Apache County School Superintendent he had no idea it would lead to stalking, anonymous threatening letters, and even getting assaulted while canvassing. And he was shocked that the person responsible for the harassment was the county attorney.  Today we’re joined by IJ attorneys Ben Field and McCarley Maddock to talk about an outrageous case of First Amendment retaliation and IJ fights for free speech. This is Beyond the Brief.  https://youtu.be/k2bLplHoUyY Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now Related Case https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZIN9M_Sjlg

Candi Mentink and Todd Collard sell personalized caskets to honor the deceased person’s unique life. They can ship these caskets almost anywhere in the world, but they can’t sell them to people in their own state of Oklahoma. That’s because Todd and Candi are up against one of the strongest economic cartels in America: the funeral industry.  Today we chat with IJ attorneys Renée Flaherty and Ben field to discuss how IJ is burying the funeral cartel— thereby lowering prices and giving everyone more choice in how they live and die.  https://youtu.be/ndEgQjxvcIQ Case Details Read more https://youtu.be/IIZUmFKirdk Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now

What happens when the government tries to take well-kept homes and businesses by slapping them with a “blight” label that doesn’t fit? Perth Amboy, New Jersey, tried to do just that—but a court vacated the blight designation, blocking the city from taking those properties for private development.  Today we talk with IJ attorneys Robert McNamara and Bobbi Taylor about how this win happened, what it means for property owners, and why “blight” isn’t a magic word that makes legal protections disappear.  https://youtu.be/671ux5MfZ_4 Related Cases Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now

In Florida, if a town doesn’t like what you do with your lawn, you could face bankruptcy. Sandy Martinez is stuck with $165,000 in fines for completely harmless code violations, most of it for occasionally parking a car a little bit over her driveway and onto the grass. Jim Ficken faced foreclosure of his home because his grass grew too long while he was out of town.  Today we are joined by IJ attorneys Andrew Ward and Mike Greenberg. We’re discussing Florida’s devastating daily-accruing fine system, how courts have refused to stop these abuses, and how IJ is fighting back.  https://youtu.be/cnSW-AcP6_Q Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now

New York City is in a housing crisis—and according to official statistics, roughly 26,000 rent stabilized apartments sit vacant. That’s because New York City law makes many units unprofitable to rent. Today, we’re talking about IJ’s new federal challenge focused on vacant units—not occupied apartments—and what it could mean for property rights and renters.  Today we’re joined by IJ attorneys Suranjan Sen and Will Aronin.  https://youtu.be/8haAMezEe0M

What can we do to bring accountability to policing for the sake of both the public and police officers themselves? Today, we’re talking with special guest Jeff Wenniger, a retired LAPD Lieutenant who spent more than 30 years in law enforcement and is now an advocate for how to rethink law enforcement—grounded in trust, integrity, and true community partnership. We’re also joined by IJ senior attorney Patrick Jaicomo, who leads IJ’s efforts to dismantle the legal doctrines that block accountability for police officers and other officials.  Today we talk with Jeff and Patrick about why policing needs more accountability, what cops really think about qualified immunity, and how we can make policing better for everyone.  https://youtu.be/mH4bl_e3w8g Americans Against Qualified Immunity We are a grassroots movement of Americans from all walks of life working to ensure that if we must follow the law, then government workers must follow the Constitution. Join the Movement Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now

IJ just scored a win at a Pennsylvania appeals court that puts renters’ privacy rights on the same level as owners’ for the first time anywhere in the country. It was a wild ride featuring a violated court order, a stake out of a judge’s car, and obstruction designed to keep the inspection program a secret. It is also part of decades-long campaign to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court precedent that lets the government enter renters’ homes without a real warrant or suspicion of wrongdoing.  https://youtu.be/BjztA-fIvXg Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now

Leo Garcia Venegas and George Retes were simply trying to work, when they got ensnared by dragnet federal immigration raids. Even though both men identified themselves as U.S. citizens, multiple agents aggressively detained them—in Leo’s case two separate times and in George’s case for three days. Now, as more citizens get swept up in these raids, Leo and George are standing up for their rights with IJ.  We’re here with IJ attorneys Jared McClain and Jaba Tsitsuashvili to discuss how current immigration raids are enabling warrantless government trespassing, arrests without probable cause, and other abuses of the Constitution.  To be clear, these cases aren’t about whether the government can enforce immigration laws.  They’re about whether or not the government has to follow the Constitution, federal law, and its own regulations when it does.  https://youtu.be/BhFx47qLx7A Become a Monthly Donor Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year. Donate now