Plus new study shows 96% of private land has no 4A protection. | View in browser
Institute for Justice updates
Free Speech Retaliation
A Grandma's Retaliatory Arrest: IJ Takes Her Fight to the Supreme Court
After winning a hard-fought election, Sylvia Gonzalez became the first Hispanic councilwoman in her small Texas town. Town officials didn't appreciate her criticism, and they soon engineered her arrest on bogus charges. Sylvia teamed up with IJ to hold these officials accountable. Tomorrow, IJ will argue her case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Listen to Sylvia discuss her fight in her own words.
New Study Shows How Much Private Property the Supreme Court Has Excluded From Fourth Amendment Protection
Few American landowners realize that the “no trespassing” signs, fences, and gates they install are no barrier to government agents. A new study from IJ for the first time quantifies just how much property is open to warrantless searches due to a legal precedent known as the “open fields doctrine.” IJ found that nearly 96% of all private land in the country—about 1.2 billion acres—is essentially open to government trespasses.
Security Deposit Box Owners Who Sued Over Missing Property Win First Round in Their Cases
Don Mellein rented a security deposit box to keep safe precious coins he had purchased as retirement savings. Jeni Pearsons and Michael Storc stored precious metals and cash in their box. They all were effectively forced to prove their innocence in order to keep the government from permanently taking their property. But when the government gave up on its forfeiture efforts, it failed to return 63 precious metal coins worth more than $100,000 to Don and $2,000 in cash to Jeni and Michael. Now, their lawsuits to be made whole will move forward.
Listen to Gonzalez V. Trevino tomorrow, March 20, at 10 a.m. ET!
Tomorrow morning, IJ heads back to the Supreme Court to argue on behalf of Sylvia Gonzalez, a Texas woman arrested on bogus charges for speaking against her town government. You can listen live! Our listener's guide explains the legal details at the heart of the case. The argument will start around 10 a.m. ET.
A bit of a free speech derby this week, one opinion about free speech itself and another about how to just get to the First Amendment in the first place.
Everyone says we need more housing, right? Not all local governments agree. Then, crypto backed by gold might sound like an odd concept, and it was too odd for a scam artist to stay out of prison.
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