The Institute for Justice — a nonprofit public-interest law firm dedicated to economic liberty, school choice, private property rights, unlawful taxation, freedom of speech, and constitutional limits on the power of government — is coming to North Carolina early next year.
Founded in Washington D.C. in 1991 as the premiere libertarian arm of justice in the United States, the institute, with an annual budget of $5 million, has grown substantially over the past 11 years, said attorney Clint Bolick, vice president of the institute and national director of state chapters.
“Our mission is to defend fundamental individual liberties,” he said. “I sometimes refer to us as the ACLU for real Americans.”
Up until now, he said, most of the litigation executed by the organization has involved federal constitutional issues. As a result, Bolick said the institute decided to branch out and open state chapters across the country in hopes of focusing on state constitutional issues.
He said the institution began to seriously look at medium-size states showing promise of early success. After careful consideration, Bolick said his organization decided to launch the first chapter last year in Arizona.
Second chapter in North Carolina
The institute’s board of directors authorized North Carolina to be next on the list, he said, because the climate is ripe, and people of the state need someone to vigorously fight for less government involvement in their lives.
Bolick also said the state was chosen because its colonial constitution was written by 17th century philosopher John Locke, whose writings formed the intellectual case for the later American Revolution.
Because the state constitution inherited some of its philosophy from the earlier document authored by John Locke, “it contains probably more freedom-oriented contributions than any other state constitution in the country,” he said. “It provides a fertile environment in which to vindicate the enormous promise of the state constitution.”
North Carolina was also selected, Bolick said, because the state’s court system, as a whole, tends to be more conservative than the state government. “This gives us lots of abuses to challenge,” he said, “and a good forum in which to challenge them.”
Although the final site hasn’t been determined yet, Bolick said the state chapter will be located in Raleigh.
He said officials from the Institute for Justice have already met with key libertarians and conservatives in the area, including John Hood of the John Locke Foundation, and are excited about moving forward.
Recently, Bolick said they hired attorney Michael Byrne as the executive director of the North Carolina office.
Byrne, a former John Locke Foundation employee in the early 1990s, has spent the past six years as a civil litigation lawyer. Byrne said he’s looking forward to working for the institute. “They’ve set forth an extremely impressive track record,” he said. “It will be my privilege to associate with this high-quality organization.”
Right now, Byrne is completing the groundwork needed to get the office off to an organized start. His preparation includes an in-depth study centering around the constitution of North Carolina. “It’s a fascinating document,” Byrne said. “It represents the protection of individual freedom.”
Bolick said the institute is anticipating an opening date in January. When that happens, he said, the organization will boldly launch a lawsuit, demonstrating from day one how serious they are about their legal efforts in North Carolina.
“We never do anything quietly,” he said. “Everyone who works at the Institute for Justice works here because they have a passion for freedom and for translating principles for freedom into reality. We’ve found the law to be an effective tool for restraining the excesses of government.”
Services provided by the institute are available at no charge to the client.
Instead, Bolick said the organization relies exclusively on voluntary private donations. “We have the best lawyer job in America,” he said. “We get to choose our cases and clients, we don’t charge and, best of all, the people we sue are bureaucrats.”
Defender of the underdog
The Institute for Justice generally represents the underdog, he said, or the “David versus Goliath” cases, with the organization defending the “David” in the litigation process.
For the most part, Bolick said the institute is using the American Civil Liberties Union model for expanding the organization across the United States. He said the office in North Carolina will sponsor two lawyers and one support staff member. “This model delivers a lot of bang for the buck,” Bolick said.
However, he said, that’s where the similarities to the ACLU end. “The ACLU is usually on the other side of our lawsuits,” Bolick said. “We read the Bill of Rights differently than the ACLU does. They’ve also abandoned some of their core values.”
Most importantly, Byrne said the Institute for Justice will stand for truth, justice and the American way.
“We are claiming protection for individual rights,” he said. “We will bring the North Carolina Constitution to the forefront through the litigation process and protect the rights of North Carolinians.”
Welsh is a contributing editor to Carolina Journal.