John:

On Wednesday, we secured our 12th courtroom win of the year! This time, we won ([link removed] ) on behalf of Jay Fink, an anti-spam crusader from California.  

Jay runs a small business where he sorts through individual client’s email inboxes looking for emails that might violate the state’s anti-spam law, which allows people to sue spammers. His model is simple: He reads emails, sorts them, and sends PDF copies to clients, who may or may not decide to hire a lawyer and go after the spammer. 

But according to California, Jay was working as an unlicensed private investigator—a real-life Sherlock Holmes. (You are also a private investigator in the eyes of California if you’ve ever “investigated” the “acts” of “any person.”) So, the state demanded he shut his business until he takes 6,000 hours—literally three full-time years—of irrelevant training about things like insurance adjusting and how to investigate arson. 

The government can’t restrict your speech without a compelling reason, and it can’t require that you take incredibly burdensome and irrelevant training just to look through an email inbox. So, Jay teamed up with IJ to fight back.

“I’m thankful that I won’t have to worry about losing my livelihood anymore. But the state never should have shut me down in the first place.”

- Jay Fink

And we won. But there were some noteworthy highlights along the way. Early on, we got IJ’s first preliminary injunction from a federal court in an economic liberty case—meaning the California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services could not enforce its private investigator licensing requirement against Jay.

 

Then, this week, the district court ruled that the preliminary injunction would become permanent, prohibiting the Bureau from ever enforcing its private investigator licensing requirement against Jay.

The order rightly declares that forcing Jay to get a PI license to run his business is so irrational that it violates his right to pursue a lawful occupation. Now, Jay is free to get back to work—for good!  

Victories like this are only possible thanks to our donors. Please consider making a donation to help defend the constitutional rights of all Americans. ([link removed] )

Scott

Scott G. Bullock

President and Chief Counsel

Institute for Justice

Donate Today ([link removed] )

Institute for Justice, 901 N. Glebe Road, Suite 900, Arlington, Virginia 22203

Unsubscribe ([link removed] )
Manage preferences ([link removed] )