Liberty Justice Center
| Abbreviation | LJC |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2011 |
| Founders | |
| Type | 501(c)(3) organization |
| 45-4204425 | |
| Headquarters | 7500 Rialto Blvd Suite 1-250 Austin, TX 78735 |
President | Jacob Huebert |
Revenue (2023) | $2,798,379[1] |
Staff | 26 (2023)[2] |
| Website | libertyjusticecenter |
The Liberty Justice Center (LJC) is an American non-profit public interest law firm in the United States. LJC was founded in Chicago in 2011, but as of 2025 is based in Texas.
In April 2025, LJC sued the Trump administration in the United States Court of International Trade with the case V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump and has been featured in national news outlets as such as The Wall Street Journal,[3] Bloomberg,[4][5] Forbes,[6] The Hill,[7] among others as part of a broader series of public-interest law firms filing suit against the Trump administration's unilateral installation of tariffs on April 2, 2025, labeled Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs.
LJC also provided pro bono legal representation to child support specialist Mark Janus of the U.S. Supreme Court case Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31.[8]
History
Patrick Hughes co-founded the Liberty Justice Center and served as President of the organization from 2011 until 2022.[9] LJC was founded in Chicago in 2011, but as of 2025 is based in Texas. As of 2025 its president is Jacob Huebert, LJC’s former director of litigation. Sara Albrecht is Chairman and Treasurer of the organization. The center is nonpartisan, but was described by the Champaign News-Gazette newspaper in 2017 as having a “don't-tread-on-me approach toward political and economic freedom.”[10]
Cases
The Liberty Justice Center does not accept government funding of any kind, and has a selective caseload focused on suing the government. LJC sued the city of Chicago in 2016 over its regulations for home-sharing, and according to the Chicago Tribune attorneys called the city’s regulations “draconian”.[11] LJC has also sued the city of Chicago over its so-called “Netflix tax” on web-based streaming services.[12] The Chicago Tribune reported in 2015 that LJC sued the village of Downers Grove in suburban Chicago over a ban on painted wall signs.[13] LJC has also sued over Illinois’ campaign contribution limits.[14]
Harris v. Quinn
In 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of Illinois woman Pam Harris in the case out of Illinois Harris v. Quinn. The ruling meant that thousands of home caregivers in Illinois and nationally were no longer classified as state employees and no longer forced to pay union fees or dues. The Liberty Justice Center successfully petitioned the state to expand this ruling to home childcare providers, meaning approximately 50,000 Illinois day care providers were no longer forced to pay dues to the SEIU.[15]
Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31
Liberty Justice Center worked on the United States Supreme Court case Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31. The Court heard oral arguments in this case on Feb. 26, 2018.[16]
The case came about in March 2015, when three government workers from Illinois represented by attorneys from LJC legal action to challenge union fair share dues. The case is named after Mark Janus, an Illinois child support specialist covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Janus claims that he should not need to pay fees to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees because doing so constitutes paying for political speech with which Janus disagrees.[17] Under Illinois law, state government can require its employees to pay fees to a government union as a condition of employment.
V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump
In April 2025, the Liberty Justice Center sued the Trump administration in V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump in what LJC alleged was an unconstitutional overreach of Executive branch authority by unilaterally imposing tariffs on nearly all imports and almost overnight jeopardizing entire business models of several enterprises.[18][19][20][21][22][23]
Ilya Somin, a libertarian law professor at George Mason University said of the case in April 2025 that, "If this were to get to the Supreme Court and the case were to be decided on the merits, as opposed to some technical procedural issue, I think we have a good chance of getting the five votes that we need."[24]
The Daily Beast reported that the LJC has sued Trump for what it called an, "...'Unprecedented Power Grab' Over Tariffs".[25]
See also
References
- ↑ "Liberty Justice Center - Nonprofit Explorer". 9 May 2013.
- ↑ "Our Team".
- ↑ "New Lawsuit Takes Aim at Trump's 'Liberation Day' Tariffs". WSJ. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
- ↑ "Bloomberg and Forbes Podcast Interviews About our Lawsuit Challenging Trump's "Liberation Day" Tariffs". Reason.com. 2025-04-17. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
- ↑ Wheeler, Lydia (April 8, 2025). "First Conservative-Leaning Groups Push Back on President Trump". bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved April 19, 2025.
- ↑ Durkee, Alison. "California Suing Trump Over Tariffs—First State To Bring Lawsuit". Forbes. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
- ↑ Schonfeld, Zach (April 14, 2025). "Trump sued over 'Liberation Day' tariffs". thehill.com. Retrieved April 19, 2025.
- ↑ Janus, Mark. "Why I don't want to pay union dues". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ↑ Project, Illinois Opportunity (2021-08-10). "Patrick Hughes". Illinois Opportunity Project. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
- ↑ Dey, Jim (2017-06-01). "Jim Dey: Lawyer is a slugger in war on bad rules". The News-Gazette. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ↑ Marotti, Ally (2016-11-16). "Chicago's Airbnb home-sharing rules are 'draconian,' lawsuit says". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ↑ Peterson, Josh. "Chicago sued for 'Netflix tax'". Watchdog.org. Retrieved 2018-09-06.[permanent dead link]
- ↑ Mannion, Annemarie. "Downers Grove man sues over new village ban on painted wall signs". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ↑ Pearson, Rick (2012-07-25). "Illinois conservative group sues over campaign contribution limits". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 2018-09-06. Retrieved 2018-09-06. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Unionized Illinois day care providers no longer forced to pay $10 million to SEIU". Illinois Policy Institute. 2014-07-31. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ↑ "Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 - SCOTUSblog". SCOTUSblog. Retrieved 2018-09-06.
- ↑ https://ljc-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/2016/12/Rauner-v.-AFSCME-120-First-Amended-Complaint-2015.06.01.pdf
- ↑ Li, Katherine. "A wine importer, pipe-maker, and fishing gear shop want to take down Trump's tariffs". Business Insider. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
- ↑ www.cato.org https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-daily-podcast/lawsuit-end-liberation-day-tariffs. Retrieved 2025-04-19. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ Jenkins, Mike (2025-04-18). "Small Businesses Seek Emergency Halt To Trump's "Liberation Day" Tariffs". www.tampafp.com. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
- ↑ "Liberty Justice Center and I File Lawsuit Challenging Trump's "Liberation Day" Tariffs". Reason.com. 2025-04-14. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
- ↑ "V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump". Liberty Justice Center. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
- ↑ Halvorson, Rusty. "Lawsuit filed on Trump tariffs". The Mighty 790 KFGO | KFGO. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
- ↑ Khardori, Ankush (2025-04-21). "'An Enormous Usurpation': Inside the Case Against Trump's Tariffs". POLITICO. Retrieved 2025-04-23.
- ↑ "Conservative Group Sues Trump for 'Unprecedented Power Grab'". The Daily Beast. 2025-04-15. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
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