Yesterday, IJ won a crucial victory at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in our fight to defend Californians’ First Amendment right to speak for a living.

Today, as I was writing to share that news with you, we received word of a second appeals court victory—on the same issue! The 4th Circuit ruled emphatically in favor of our clients in Charleston, South Carolina, agreeing that the city violated their rights when it shut down their speech.

Taken together, these victories are a resounding vindication of IJ’s long-running campaign to ensure that people who speak for a living enjoy full constitutional protection. Both of these cases have been going on for several years, so a refresher on what they’re about might be in order.

• In California, IJ client Bob Smith has spent three decades sharing the ancient art of horseshoeing with the next generation of professional “farriers” at his Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School (you can watch Bob and his students in action in this award-winning IJ case video). But in 2017, the state ordered Bob to turn away students who didn’t possess a high school diploma or GED—or the state would shut down his entire school. The real-world result of this unnecessary rule? People like our client Esteban Narez, a ranch hand without a high school diploma who worked irregular jobs, are arbitrarily denied an opportunity to learn a blue-collar occupation that would help them support themselves and their families.
   
• In South Carolina, we represent Kim Billups, who simply wanted to start a small business as a tour guide in Charleston. But the city instituted an onerous and arbitrary licensing regime that allowed it to, among other things, require approval of a guide’s script in advance. This gave the city unparalleled power to control what stories could be told about its history. What’s more, without passing the city’s test, Kim couldn’t get her business off the ground—and the penalty for speaking to a tour group without a license was fines and jail time. You can hear her tell her story in the case video here. We won the case at the trial court, and today the federal appellate court resoundingly affirmed that decision.

Allowing the government to dictate what people can or cannot say and who can or cannot listen to them is dangerous. The appeals court rulings this week affirm it’s also unconstitutional. These victories will help IJ ensure that all Americans have an opportunity to earn a living by communicating with others who want to listen.

Scott

Scott G. Bullock
President and General Counsel
Institute for Justice

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