Beyond the Brief

Beyond the Brief

Hear about the cases, issues, and tactics advancing IJ’s fight for freedom—directly from the people on the front lines. Beyond the Brief explores the legal theories, strategies, and methods IJ uses to bring about real world change, expanding individual liberty and ending abuses of government power. Each episode gives listeners an in-depth, inside look at how—and why—we do what we do.

Episodes

Feds’ Surveillance Scandal: “Cash me if you can”

May 16, 2025 • 26 mins
A new financial surveillance dragnet is sweeping up ordinary cash transactions at small businesses near the US-Mexico border. The federal government has placed onerous new requirements on businesses that help people without bank accounts cash checks or send money to family members. It’s demanding reports on all transactions involving at least $200 in cash, subjecting innocent people to warrantless surveillance and burying small bus...
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Judges:  Activist, Minimalist, or Something Else?

May 2, 2025 • 39 mins
You might think constitutional lawsuits work like this: Find an unconstitutional law, challenge it in court, and if the law is truly unconstitutional, the court will strike it down. But in reality, a web of legal doctrines and ingrained attitudes mean judges have enormous leeway to avoid ruling against the government.  On this episode, we talk with IJ attorneys Josh Windham and John Wrench on judicial deference and why courts pr...
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FBI Raids Wrong House – No Remorse for Victims

April 17, 2025 • 35 mins
In 2017, FBI agents, with guns drawn and a flashbang grenade, burst into the Atlanta home of Trina Martin, her then seven-year-old son Gabe, and her then partner Toi. Turns out, they had the wrong address. In April, Trina’s yearslong fight for accountability is heading to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Today we chat with IJ client Trina Martin and IJ attorney Patrick Jaicomo about wrong house raids, what it’s like have the Supreme Cou...
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14th Amendment:  Securing Our Rights Against Tyranny

April 4, 2025 • 41 mins
First enacted to ensure southern states respected the rights of newly freed slaves, the 14th Amendment is indispensable to modern civil rights litigation. But what does the amendment say and how does IJ use it to challenge everything from harassment by police to undue burdens on hair braiders?  Today we’ll discuss all that and more with IJ attorneys Bob McNamara and John Wrench. https://youtu.be/xPPU9ZKWd0Q Become a Mo...
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EXCESSIVE FINE:  $100k for Parking on Your Grass

March 13, 2025 • 42 mins
$29,000 for overgrown grass. $16,000 for cracks in the driveway. $100,000 for parking incorrectly on your own property. These are some of the outrageous fines IJ’s clients have faced, often for harmless violations. The prohibition on excessive fines is one of our oldest rights, but governments, from small towns to federal agencies like the IRS, still issue ruinous fines and courts still rubberstamp these fines.  IJ attorneys Sam...
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Government Caught Outlawing Private Charity

February 28, 2025 • 20 mins
For centuries, people have helped their neighbors by providing food, shelter, and more to people in need. But all too often, the creativity and generosity of ordinary people conflicts with government regulations. That’s why IJ defends those providing private solutions to public problems. I'm Kim Norberg of the nonprofit civil liberties law firm the Institute for Justice, with IJ senior attorney Jeff Rowes.   https://youtu.be/aJ...
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VICTORY:  Creepy Predictive Policing Program Shut Down

February 13, 2025 • 38 mins
In Pasco County, Florida, the Sheriff’s Office thought it had a great idea: make lists of who might commit crimes in the future and hound them and their families until they end up in jail or move away. Under Pasco’s so-called intelligence-led policing program, hundreds of people, many of them minors, were deemed “prolific offenders” based on a crude algorithm and subjected to relentless night-time visits, citations for minor code i...
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The Government Can GIVE Your Home to Developers

January 31, 2025 • 46 mins
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court issued one of its most reviled decisions in modern history, in Kelo v. City of New London. By a vote of 5-4, the Court said governments could use eminent domain to take private property and give it to private developers who might pay more in taxes. As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said in her dissent, “The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing a...
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Badges & Bulldozers: Georgia’s Home Destructions

January 16, 2025 • 43 mins
We all want to feel secure in our homes, and if the reckless or abusive acts of government officials violate that security, we expect to be able to hold them accountable. IJ recently launched two cases in Georgia to uphold that principle; one in which a town bulldozed a home without warning or compensation and another where FBI agents violently raided the wrong house.  Today we are joined by IJ attorneys Dylan Moore and Patrick ...
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Mom Mistakenly Jailed.  Missed Christmas with Active Duty Son

January 2, 2025 • 37 mins
On Christmas Eve 2022, Jennifer Heath Box got off a cruise ship in Florida, excited to return home to Texas and spend Christmas with her children before her son was deployed. Instead, police arrested her as she got off the ship, and she spent Christmas in jail, where guards pumped death metal music and freezing air into the cells.  All because police were looking for a woman who didn’t look like Jennifer, was half her age, and d...
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Creepy AI-powered Surveillance Cams in 5,000 Cities and Counting

December 16, 2024 • 36 mins
Not long ago, if police wanted to know where someone drove, they would have to follow that person for days, taking significant resources. But new technology allows the government to track everyone nearly all the time and to access that information without a warrant. As this technology spreads around the country, people are fighting back for the Fourth Amendment.   Today we have with us IJ attorneys Robert Frommer and Michael Soy...
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“Fish Cops” Flounder the 4th Amendment

November 26, 2024 • 28 mins
In Pennsylvania, officers of the Fish and Boat Commission have the power to trespass on any land or water without a warrant. For one couple, that lead to repeated harassment at their lakeside home from a Waterways Conservation Officer. But the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protects all Americans, including Pennsylvanians who live near water. Today we’re talking with IJ attorneys Kirby Thomas West and Dylan Moore about a new ca...
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When Lawsuits Go Viral with  @CivilRightsLawyer 

November 14, 2024 • 48 mins
The proliferation of video is changing how Americans fight for their civil rights, and much of it is happening right here on YouTube. I'm Kim Norberg of the nonprofit civil liberties law firm the Institute for Justice, together with co-host Keith Neely and IJ senior attorney Patrick Jaicomo. Today, we’re talking with special guest John Bryan, better known as The Civil Rights Lawyer. John knows firsthand how difficult civil right...
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Officer Caught Snitching on Domestic Abuse Victim

October 24, 2024 • 38 mins
In 2013, a Clovis, California police officer found out that his girlfriend Desiree Martinez had reported him for physically abusing her—while Desiree was trapped in a room with him, leading to further horrific abuse. Incredibly, the informant was another officer who knew about Desiree’s boyfriend’s history of domestic violence. Desiree later sued that officer informant for enabling the abuse, but an appeals court granted qualified ...
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Town Council Blocks Business for Causing…Competition?!?

October 10, 2024 • 27 mins
In America, the government doesn’t get to pick winners and losers in the marketplace. Yet states and cities throughout the country block new business to protect established interests. That’s when IJ steps in. Awa Diagne has been braiding hair for 30 years, but when she tried to open a braiding salon in an Atlanta suburb, the town told her it would provide too much competition. So, Awa and IJ are fighting back.   Today we talk wi...
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Popular Family Store Fights Bogus Eminent Domain

September 28, 2024 • 35 mins
Can the government take your land just because they don’t like you? That’s happening to Brinkmann’s Hardware, a beloved local store in Long Island. After a lengthy fight, the town of Southhold, NY is now trying to take their land away through eminent domain—all to protect another business from competition. Today we talk with Hank Brinkmann and IJ Senior Attorney Jeff Redfern about how Brinkmann’s Hardware went from a small family s...
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Rebel Ridge:  Fact or Fiction?

September 25, 2024 • 22 mins
The film Rebel Ridge came September 6 and shot to #1 on Netflix. It depicts a former Marine’s attempts to get his money back after it was taken by police through civil forfeiture. That story sounded pretty familiar to us at IJ.   We have been working to dismantle civil forfeiture for decades, but unlike the film’s main character, our clients aren’t vigilantes who take the law into their own hands; instead, they fight back in cou...
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Carrying Cash is NOT a Crime

September 13, 2024 • 37 mins
It’s legal to travel domestically with any amount of cash. It’s legal to travel in and out of the U.S. with more than $10k if you declare it. But that doesn’t stop law enforcement from searching travelers’ property and seizing any cash they find without warrants or evidence of a crime. Today we talk with IJ attorneys Jaba Tsitsuashvili and Ben Field about how the government treats carrying cash like a crime and what IJ’s doing to f...
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To Serve, Protect, and…Fish for Cash? Bogus Traffic Stops Violate 4th Amendment

August 22, 2024 • 39 mins
On a typical day, police officers pull over more than 50,000 drivers. If you’ve had a recent encounter with police, chances are good it was during a traffic stop. Traffic stops can lead to searches, arrests, and worse, yet they seldom involve a [search] warrant. So how did vehicles become Fourth-Amendment-free zones?  Today we are joined by Josh Windham, the leader of IJ’s Project on the Fourth Amendment. We’ll explore how traff...
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Speaking for a Living and the First Amendment

August 8, 2024 • 36 mins
The freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment is a foundational and cherished right that sets America apart from other constitutional democracies.    Many people think of the First Amendment in the context of controversial speech on highly politicized issues. But did you know that some of the most important free speech cases today involve uncontroversial speech on issues that matter to ordinary Americans in their daily ...
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