Beyond the Brief

Millions of Americans face serious legal problems every year without a lawyer—often because the legal system has made help too expensive and too hard to find. As a result, they face the legal system on their own or give up entirely, often missing important rights or obligations they didn’t know they had. IJ’s new initiative, Counsel Unbound, is changing that by breaking the lawyer cartel. 

Today we’re talking with IJ’s Director of Activism Jenny McDonald and Deputy Litigation Director Bob McNamara about why legal advice is speech, how lawyers created their own monopoly, and how IJ protects people who want to help others navigate the law. 

Teaching kids to swim in a backyard pool is an American tradition, but one South Carolina city has now banned backyard swim lessons. Libby Souder taught one-on-one swim lessons for a few hours a day until a neighbor complained—before he even moved in. 

Today we talk with IJ attorneys Renée Flaherty and Robert Fellner to discuss how cities make harmless home businesses illegal and how IJ fights back.  

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Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year.

We are headed back to the U.S. Supreme Court with three cases in the next term. Today, we’re discussing two of those cases, which could have major implications for private property, agency power, and individual rights. One case asks whether property owners can be forced to pay huge legal bills just to get fair compensation when their land is taken. The other asks whether the government can drag Americans into agency-run courts instead of real ones. 

Today we are talking with  IJ Senior Attorneys Robert McNamara and Rob Johnson. 

Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year.

Stealing small businesses’ bank accounts and spying on people using cash. It’s the IRS and other agencies run amok. 

Today we’re talking with IJ senior attorneys Dan Alban and Rob Johnson about how the IRS used “structuring” laws to take money from people who did nothing wrong. We’ll also cover IJ’s fight against new rules that sweep ordinary cash transactions into a financial surveillance dragnet—and what all of this means for people who use cash or run a small business.

Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year.

Mike DiGiacomo and his siblings turned the basement of their father’s old barbershop building into a barber-themed speakeasy. But their attempt to honor their father became a legal battle when Nebraska’s Barber Board told them to change the name or possibly go to jail. 

Today we’re talking with IJ deputy litigation director Robert McNamara and IJ attorney Nick DeBenedetto about an outrageous case of licensing board censorship. 

Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year.

In America, police and prosecutors can take your cash, your car, or even your home through a legal process called civil forfeiture—without convicting or even charging you with a crime. When they do, victims face a maze of short deadlines, complicated paperwork, and a system built so that the government often wins by default. 

The Institute for Justice leads the fight against this abuse, in part by publishing Policing for Profit: the best and most complete analysis of civil forfeiture across all 50 states and the federal government. And we’ve just released the Fourth Edition. 

Today we talk with IJ’s Senior Director of Strategic Research Lisa Knepper and IJ senior attorney Kirby West. We’re breaking down what the report found, how we built it, and what forfeiture looks like from the perspective of the people who have had property taken and had to fight to get it back. 

Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year.

When an Arizona educator named “Fernie” Madrid ran for Apache County School Superintendent he had no idea it would lead to stalking, anonymous threatening letters, and even getting assaulted while canvassing. And he was shocked that the person responsible for the harassment was the county attorney. 

Today we’re joined by IJ attorneys Ben Field and McCarley Maddock to talk about an outrageous case of First Amendment retaliation and IJ fights for free speech. This is Beyond the Brief. 

Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year.

Candi Mentink and Todd Collard sell personalized caskets to honor the deceased person’s unique life. They can ship these caskets almost anywhere in the world, but they can’t sell them to people in their own state of Oklahoma. That’s because Todd and Candi are up against one of the strongest economic cartels in America: the funeral industry. 

Today we chat with IJ attorneys Renée Flaherty and Ben field to discuss how IJ is burying the funeral cartel— thereby lowering prices and giving everyone more choice in how they live and die. 

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Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year.

Next week, the Supreme Court is going to hear a huge civil rights case that no one is talking about—because the legal issue before the Court is the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, an obscure and slightly treasonous doctrine that lets federal judges throw worthy cases out of court without reaching the merits.

On this episode, we examine the doctrine’s impact as well as its origins, including the life and times of the litigants for whom it is named, William Rooker and Marc Feldman. Rooker was a big shot Indiana lawyer who represented lynching victims and Klansmen. And Marc Feldman was a professor of law who fought for the little guy.

Click here for transcript.

Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co.

D.C. Court of Appeals v. Feldman

What happens when the government tries to take well-kept homes and businesses by slapping them with a “blight” label that doesn’t fit? Perth Amboy, New Jersey, tried to do just that—but a court vacated the blight designation, blocking the city from taking those properties for private development. 

Today we talk with IJ attorneys Robert McNamara and Bobbi Taylor about how this win happened, what it means for property owners, and why “blight” isn’t a magic word that makes legal protections disappear. 

Are you looking for a rewarding and consistent way to support IJ’s work?  Become a member of our Merry Band of Monthly Donors and stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients every month of the year.