The fight continues for innocent victims of impound racket

Dear John:

Last week, we received a disappointing ruling in our case challenging Chicago’s unconstitutional vehicle impound program. But this early loss sets us up to appeal to a higher court—where we will be better positioned to achieve real and lasting legal change.

IJ clients Jerome Davis and Veronica Walker-Davis had their car impounded after an auto shop employee with a revoked license decided to take their car for a joyride.

Jerome and Veronica were innocent of any wrongdoing, but that’s no defense under Chicago’s ordinances. A court told them they had to pay thousands to get their car back, but by the time they could collect enough money, the city had already scrapped it. Chicago impounds tens of thousands of vehicles each year, generating millions in revenue by holding cars for ransom—regardless of whether the owner did anything wrong.

So when IJ decided to challenge this predatory scheme together with Jerome and Veronica, we filed a sweeping class action lawsuit. This isn’t about one car; it’s about stopping Chicago’s unconstitutional impound racket for everyone.

This case perfectly captures the principle that innocent people should not be held liable for the illegal actions of others. But for years, courts have systematically eroded that principle by ruling time and again that the very opposite is true.

And they did so again here. After years of litigation, last week a trial court upheld Chicago’s impound program. And now we’re exactly where we always planned to be.

Veronica Walker-Davis and Jerome Davis's car was towed after an auto shop employee took it for a joy ride. The city scrapped the car before the couple could pay the fine to get it back.

Like much of IJ’s work, this case was never about the trial court alone—our sights were on the federal appellate court from day one. The 7th Circuit has previously held that cities can impose fines on vehicle owners for the actions of others if their vehicles were used for illegal purposes—even if the owners were unaware of the illegal activity. That cannot be. So, we took up this case to overturn that bad precedent and establish that individuals cannot be punished for the crimes of others.

Our history has shown time and again that early losses can pave the way for transformative victories. Ash Patel knows this better than anyone. In 2011 Ash and IJ suffered a first-round loss in our challenge to Texas’ irrational licensing law for eyebrow threaders. But Ash knew this was bigger than eyebrow threading and that his case had the potential to change the shape of the law nationwide.

Because Ash never gave up, we litigated his case all the way to the Texas Supreme Court. There, we persuaded the court to break with federal precedent and establish that judges should give meaningful review to economic restrictions rather than blindly deferring to regulators. Now, three other states have followed suit. And we’re poised to double that number in the next few years.

And that’s not the only instance where our tenacity and persistence led to greater victory. The same happened in our fight for tour guides from D.C., whose case was the first in our revolutionary campaign to protect people who speak for a living. And the same for Ohio homeowners who helped establish at the state supreme court that eminent domain cannot be used to take property from one person and transfer it to another because of so-called “economic development.”

In Chicago, we’re positioned to take this fight to the appellate courts, where we have the opportunity to dismantle bad precedent and establish lasting protections for all Americans.

This is how real reform happens: We challenge an unjust law, fight through early losses, win at higher courts, and then we use that to fuel even bigger change.

Thank you for standing with IJ as we take this fight to the next level.

Institute for Justice

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