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Institute for Justice updates
Immunity & Accountability
Supreme Court Accepts First Amendment Retaliation Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of IJ client Sylvia Gonzalez, a 76-year-old Texas grandmother who sued officials in Castle Hills, Texas, after they arrested her as punishment for criticizing the city manager. The case asks the Supreme Court to reconsider how government officials are given immunity when they conspire to jail their critics.
Ocean Springs Property Owners Challenge Slum Designation in New Federal Lawsuit
Ocean Springs, Mississippi, declared dozens of well-maintained homes and other properties in a historically black neighborhood to be “slum and blighted” in order to designate them as an “urban renewal” area—and didn't tell the owners. Well-cared-for property isn’t blight, and blight designations should never be passed in secret. Now, property owners are teaming up with IJ to challenge the blight designations in a new federal lawsuit.
Stopping an End Run Around Government Accountability
Since 2012, the head of Louisiana's prison system has known that his prisons regularly overdetain people. One of those people is IJ client Percy Taylor, held for a year and a half past his release date. Now, Percy and IJ are suing to hold the prison chief accountable.
After IJ partnered with Pasadena, Texas, mechanic Oz Sepulveda, a court ruled against that the city's attempt to force Oz to build more parking spots than could physically fit on the property. But the city is continuing to block Oz's business, so IJ went back into action.
A special Short Circuit Live in southern California with a special guest. We welcome Ken White, a/k/a Popehat, to the show. Ken digs into Missouri v. Biden, the all-over-the-place litigation from the Fifth Circuit about pressure from the Biden Administration to have social media companies remove certain kinds of speech.
Short Circuit: General Law for the Fourth Amendment
We’re joined by Professor Dan Epps of Washington University in St. Louis. Anyone interested in the Fourth Amendment and its intersection with property rights may find the conversation especially interesting.
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