Plus Cristal gets her savings back, and a new video featuring cute cows. | View in browser
Institute for Justice updates
First Amendment Retaliation
Jury Awards IJ Client $205,000 Over Unconstitutional Arrest for His Facebook Joke
During the pandemic, Waylon Bailey was arrested for making a harmless joke on Facebook about Covid and zombies. After a court granted immunity to the sheriff's department responsible, Waylon teamed up with IJ to appeal his case to the 5th Circuit—and we won, clearing the way for Waylon's case to continue. Now, a jury has granted Waylon, back with his old law firm, $205,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.
Amy Hadley watched in horror as her home was raided by police and destroyed in South Bend, Indiana, in June 2022. Over a year later, her family is still traumatized and their home still bears the scars of the raid. And all of this happened because police were searching for a man who was never in their home and who had no connection to Amy’s family.
Rochester Woman Gets Money Back After Police Seized It Without Suspecting Her of Crime, Will Fight for Interest Payments
Cristal Starling lost her savings when police raided her apartment looking for evidence against her now-ex boyfriend. She tried to get her money back, but because she missed one paperwork deadline, she was told her money had been permanently forfeited by the DEA. So, she teamed up with IJ, and now the DEA has retuned the money. We will fight on for interest on the three years the government wrongly deprived her of her savings.
A more poetic Short Circuit where we pay homage to Scotland’s greatest poet, Robert Burns, with discussions of qualified immunity, bad lawyering, and a Texas law on rating books.
We welcome two former clerks of Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain of the 9th Circuit, David Lat of Original Jurisdiction and New York litigator Daniel Sullivan. We talk suspending prosecutors and banning gas stoves.
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