On January 1, 2022, students who lack a high school degree will be free to study at the Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School and learn a trade that will help them earn an honest living. Please join IJ today with a gift of $25, $50, or $100 and help us win even more victories for ordinary Americans who face government barriers to opportunity.

IJ client Bob Smith, founder of the school, prevailed in his fight to teach willing students a trade after four years of litigation. Our case took on California’s “ability-to-benefit" laws, which made Bob a criminal for accepting students who did not have a high school degree or pass an equivalent government exam. California’s ban was nonsensical and unconstitutional, and it harmed the very students it claimed to serve by denying them an opportunity to learn job skills. After an important win at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year, IJ secured a final victory for Bob and his students when California lawmakers repealed the state’s “ability-to-benefit" requirement. Thus, starting in the new year, any student—regardless of their degree status—will be free to learn a trade at schools like Bob’s.

This is only one of several IJ victories since I last wrote asking for your support:

• IJ client Vicki Baker won a first-round victory in her fight to hold the government accountable for leaving her—an innocent property owner—with $80,000 in damages caused by a SWAT team that destroyed her Texas house.

• After eight years and an IJ victory at the U.S. Supreme Court, the state of Indiana finally abandoned its quest to seize IJ client Tyson Timbs’ Land Rover through civil forfeiture. That means Tyson can keep his car with no fear of further lawsuits, and we have landmark precedent upon which to build.

• IJ client Dr. Ron Hines scored a milestone win in his fight to give online veterinary advice to pet owners unable to see him in person: After years of Texas insisting that Dr. Hines had no First Amendment rights at all, a federal district court finally affirmed that his advice is speech and entitled to the greatest constitutional protection.

Your support of $25, $50, or $100 today will help IJ keep winning victories for hard-working people like Bob and his students, as well as Vicki, Tyson, and Dr. Hines, and hundreds of others like them. Thank you so much.

Scott

Scott G. Bullock
President and General Counsel
Institute for Justice

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