Institute for Justice updates

Immunity & Accountability

Victory: Officers Denied Qualified Immunity for Arresting and Jailing Innocent Woman at Christmas

A federal judge has ruled that a Texas woman’s lawsuit can move forward after Broward County Sheriff’s deputies wrongly arrested someone in a completely unjustified case of mistaken identity. The court also ruled that the deputies are not entitled to qualified immunity.

In the opinion, the judge wrote that it violates the Fourth Amendment to put the wrong person in jail when there are “observable differences between the individual and the person described in the warrant and there was plenty of time for officers to verify the identity of the person being arrested but the officers ignored red flags and arrested the person anyways.”

Fourth Amendment

Pennsylvania Man’s Lawsuit Against Warrantless Trespassing by Waterways Officers Can Move Forward

A federal judge denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Pennsylvania statute that “fish cops” rely on to warrantlessly search property. Tim Thomas and his late wife Stephanie purchased their cabin on Butler Lake in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, in 2014. In 2022, after Stephanie was diagnosed with stage four cancer, it became a sanctuary for her to rest and recover after her treatments. That sanctuary was soon disrupted by a Waterways Conservation Officer's warrantless trespassing.

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Free Speech

Appeals Court Blocks Innovative Program Helping New Yorkers Fight Debt Collection Lawsuits

In a blow to free speech and access to justice, the Second Circuit overturned protections for a volunteer program that trained ordinary New Yorkers to offer basic legal advice to people facing debt-collection lawsuits. The program was an effort by Upsolve, a New York-based nonprofit, to tackle the huge shortfall of lawyers available to give basic advice by using trained but unlicensed volunteers to walk people through their options. IJ and Upsolve will ask the Supreme Court to review the decision.

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Watch: Backyard Chickens Banned—Family Cries Fowl

IJ Podcasts

Short Circuit: As Goes Maine So Goes the Constitution

Your right to remain silent just got a little stronger in the Pine Tree State. Then, we discuss a case about a parked car with heavily tinted windows in the District of Columbia.

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Short Circuit: The NFL Commissioner Decides

Former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores sued the NFL itself. The NFL said the case had to go to arbitration. Which was pretty convenient because the NFL’s arbitration clause gives the job of arbitration to the NFL’s commissioner.

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