Institute for Justice
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| Formation | 1991 |
|---|---|
| Founder | |
| Type | Non-profit corporation |
| Purpose | Economic liberty advocacy |
| Headquarters | 901 N. Glebe Rd., S-900 Arlington, VA 22203 |
| Coordinates | 38°52′53″N 77°06′55″W / 38.8814°N 77.1153°WCoordinates: 38°52′53″N 77°06′55″W / 38.8814°N 77.1153°W |
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President & General Counsel
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Scott Bullock |
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Revenue (2015)
|
$34,123,923 |
|
Staff
|
95 total (39 attorneys) (2016) |
| Website | www.ij.org |
The Institute for Justice (IJ) is a non-profit libertarian public interest law firm in the United States. It has litigated five cases considered by the United States Supreme Court dealing with topics that included eminent domain, interstate commerce, public financing for elections, school vouchers, and tax credits for private school tuition. The organization was founded in 1991. As of June 2016, it employed a staff of 95 (including 39 attorneys) in Arlington, Virginia and seven offices across the United States. Its 2016 budget is $20 million.
William H. "Chip" Mellor and Clint Bolick co-founded the organization in 1991 with seed money from libertarian philanthropist Charles Koch. Mellor was the organization's President & General Counsel through 2015. Bolick was the Vice President and Director of Litigation from 1991 until he left the organization in 2004. In March 2015, the organization announced that Mellor will become the chairman of its board of directors in January 2016. Senior Attorney Scott Bullock replaced Mellor as President.
The organization's methods were modeled in part on work Bolick had done as the director of the Landmark Center for Civil Rights in Washington, D.C. For example, in the late 1980s Bolick represented Washington shoeshine stand owner Ego Brown in his attempt to overturn a Jim Crow-era law against bootblack stands on public streets. The law was designed to restrict economic opportunities for African-Americans, but was still being enforced 85 years after its passage. Bolick sued the District of Columbia on Brown's behalf, and the law was overturned in 1989. In 1991, Bolick joined former Department of Energy Deputy General Counsel Chip Mellor to found the Institute for Justice. Mellor had served as president of the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, a think tank in San Francisco. According to the Institute for Justice, books commissioned and published by the Pacific Research Institute "formed the Institute for Justice’s long-term, strategic litigation blueprint."
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