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Institute for Justice updates
Civil Forfeiture
Marine Veteran Wins First Round of Lawsuit Challenging Nevada’s Civil Forfeiture Laws
In February 2021, Stephen was pulled over on a Nevada highway on his way to visit his daughters. The Highway Patrol officers who pulled him over never alleged he did anything wrong, but they took his life savings from him. Stephen and IJ got his money back. Now, a court opinion guarantees that our broader case against the Nevada Highway Patrol will be heard on the merits.
Federal Appeals Court Slams FBI’s Actions In Security Deposit Box Raid
A 9th Circuit panel unanimously ruled against the government in IJ's long-running class action lawsuit on behalf of people who rented security deposit boxes at US Private Vaults. The decision slammed the FBI for overstepping its authority when it opened up hundreds of renters’ boxes, conducted criminal searches of them all, and attempted to permanently keep everything in the boxes worth more than $5,000, all without charging any box renter with a crime.
Virginia Food Truck Owners Fight Back After Raging Councilmember Damages Truck and Harasses Them
Theslet Benoir and Clemene Bastien are a married couple that immigrated to the United States from Haiti. For years, they've run a small store catering to the needs of the Eastern Shore’s Haitian population, but when they opened a food truck on their property, a local town councilman started a campaign of harassment. He even cut their truck's water line. Now, they're fighting back with IJ.
New Season of Bound By Oath, IJ's Legal History Podcast
Season 3 of Bound By Oath is live, and this time we're looking at the history of property rights. Designed for non-lawyers, we bring you the inside stories behind some of the Supreme Court’s weightiest rulings. Three episodes are currently available, with more dropping regularly. On episode one, we visit the woods of central Maine to look at a case where the Supreme Court okayed warrantless searches of most of the land in America.
We journey back to a lost world, the world before zoning. Specifically, a trio of historic property rights cases, including an attempt to wipe San Francisco’s Chinatown off the map.
An “utterly bonkers” case about a prosecutor who moonlighted working for the very judges who oversaw his cases. The 5th Circuit says our client can't sue about that, and they know that's unjust.
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