&LAW February 2005 Volume 14 Issue 1 Inside This Issue School Choice Changes Lives 2 IJ Knocks Internet Licensing Law Washington Chapter Cases Named “Lawsuits of the Year” Offline 3 By Steve Simpson In an important victory for Internet entrepreneurs and California consumers, a federal district court grant- 25 Amicus Briefs ed summary judgment this past November in favor of Filed in Kelo Case the Institute for Justice and its client, ForSaleByOwner. com, in its First Amendment challenge to California’s real estate licensing law. Finding the licensing 6 requirement “wholly arbitrary,” the court ruled that the State could not require classified advertising websites such as ForSaleByOwner.com to obtain a real estate license while allowing newspaper-owned websites to operate without one. thus triply bad. The educational requirements IJ brought suit on behalf of the New York-based com- were irrelevant to their businesses, the in-state pany in May 2003 after California began requiring websites office requirement rendered them unable to Human Action Network that simply advertised properties for sale in the state to compete with newspapers located within the Comes Through Again obtain a real estate broker’s license as a condition of doing state, and the law was enforced arbitrarily. business in California. The onerous licensing law required IJ mounted a two-pronged First website operators to take years of college-level real estate Amendment attack on the law. First, we 10 courses and apprentice as a real estate salesperson before argued that the license requirement was a even being able to sit for the brokers’ exam. Once licensed, prior restraint on publication. Building on our websites would have to operate out of an office located 1999 victory in Taucher v. Born, in which the in California, thus eliminating the benefits of the World Institute for Justice successfully challenged a Wide Web for entrepreneurs and consumers alike. Due to federal law requiring publishers of commodity Published Bimonthly by the an exemption, newspapers are free to publish real estate investment newsletters to become registered Institute for Justice advertisements in print or online without having to obtain a trading advisors, we argued that California’s license. For websites like ForSaleByOwner.com that do not licensing law required publishers to obtain visit us online: represent clients or give personalized advice, the law was ForSaleByOwner continued on page 9 www.ij.org &LAW Proof Positive: School Choice Changes Lives By Lisa Knepper This just in: school choice works. The latest evidence arrived in September when School Choice Wisconsin published a study by education researcher Jay P. Greene of the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy. Greene found that students in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program graduate at much higher rates—by one measure, nearly twice the rate—than students in Milwaukee’s public high schools. Choice students even fared better than their peers at Milwaukee’s six academically selective public high schools. (Read the study at www.schoolchoiceinfo.org.) Given the vital importance of a meaningful high school diploma to every young person’s life prospects and the dismal graduation rates of minorities in urban public schools this is truly out- standing news. Here’s how some beneficiaries of that good news—our clients in the legal battle to defend school choice in Milwaukee—describe what choice means to them. Grandmother on an Dad Makes Educational Mission “All the Right Choices” Zakiya Courtney sent her first Single father Tony Higgins was also inspired two children to Milwaukee Public by school choice. His daughter, Chironda, began Schools—then vowed never to do the voucher program in 1994 at Urban Day, later it again. So she found a way to graduating from St. Joan Antida High School. put her younger children in Urban Chironda is now a junior at University of Day School, a private school. Wisconsin-Parkside deciding between a degree in Urban Day ignited in Zakiya business or education. (Tony gives his daughters a passion for urban education two choices: “go to college and like it, or go to reform. In the 1990s, she head- college and don’t like it.”) After working at M&I ed Parents for School Choice to Bank, she now works part time at a voucher advocate for equal educational school and volunteers at a Boys and Girls Club. opportunities, and today she’s His other daughter, Tanya, also attended Tony Higgins with his daughter, pursuing a doctorate in educa- Urban Day on a voucher, then Marva Collins Tanya. Zakiya Courtney, top center, is surround- tion at Cardinal Stritch University. Preparatory School and now CEO Leadership Academy, a new school ed by her children and grandchildren. At her urging, every one of founded by eight African-American Milwaukee churches. But she’s no her grandchildren has participated in the Milwaukee Parental Choice longer on a voucher; now Tony can afford the tuition. Program. Seven are in the program now, and Zakiya advises their Inspired by his daughters, Tony finished college and is pursing a educational choices and volunteers at their schools. master’s degree. He works at the Technical Assistance & Leadership Her oldest grandson, Jelani Kazmende, was in the first class Center (TALC New Vision), a non-profit that helps community lead- of voucher students in 1990 at Urban Day. He is now a junior at ers create new small public and private high schools—including CEO Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C. Leadership Academy. Zakiya’s grandchildren love their schools, and she stresses the “Choice has been a blessing,” Tony says. “I see what can hap- power in “being able to choose and not being stuck with whatever pen, and we’ve made great strides in Milwaukee, but a lot of kids are the public schools offer.” Kurtis Blakes attended Agape Center of still stuck in bad schools. I want more kids to enjoy the opportunities Academic Excellence on a voucher through the 8th grade. Now my daughters have had.” a freshman at a charter school, he returns to Agape to visit every Looking back, Chironda teases her dad: “I don’t know how this chance he gets. old guy made all the right choices, but he did.” 2 February 2005 Two IJ-WA Cases Honored as “Lawsuits of the Year” By Jeanette M. Petersen Redmond has appealed the decision to the Since opening its doors in early 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 2003, the Institute for Justice Washington In “Red-Tape Tangle,” Law & Politics Chapter (IJ-WA) has been working tirelessly reported that IJ-WA client Benta Diaw was to make a name for itself in and around “[w]orried about getting busted for braid- the state of Washington. The December/ ing with intent to style” when she sued Pilar Gomez, helps her son, Tomás, get a good January 2005 issue of Washington Law & the Washington Department of Licensing education through the Milwaukee voucher program. Politics has just made this job a bit easier. and the Washington State Cosmetology, The cover of the most recent Law & Barbering, Aesthetics and Manicuring For Mom, a “Passport Politics issue prominently features the IJ- Advisory Board. Although the State is out of Poverty” WA’s bagel case (Ballen v. City of Redmond) seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, IJ-WA is All three of Pilar Gomez’s children have and reads, “BAGELS fighting the dismissal. enjoyed school choice. Andrés began in the BUSTED! The sand- Quoting an IJ-WA staff 3rd grade at St. Lawrence Catholic School wich-board litigation attorney, Law & Politics (now Prince of Peace). The private school and other lawsuits of explained, “‘Without caught what public schools had missed, diag- the year.” Inside, the thethe adoptionadoption of a for-for- nosing Andrés with attention deficit disorder. magazine features mal rulerule or courtcourt rulingruling Thanks to professional help and hard work, he stories of 12 promi- excludingexcluding AfricanAfrican braid-braid- is on the honor roll at Loyola Academy, a pub- nent cases pending ersers fromfrom thethe cosmetol-cosmetol- lic high school, and will attend Milwaukee Area in Washington courts, ogy regime,regime, brbraidersaiders liklikee Technical College. including two IJ-WA BentaBenta remainremain subject Bianca has been in the program since cases—its bagel toto thethe whims of govern-govern- 1st grade, first at St. Lawrence. Now she is case and its African ment officialsofficials . .’”.’” an honors student at Pius XI High School, hairbraiding case, LawLaw & PoliticsPolitics has been planning to attend the University of Wisconsin Diaw v. Washington describeddescribed asas a locallocal ver-ver- and become a lawyer. Tomás, a 6th grader, Department of sionsion ofof Mad magazine has attended Prince of Peace since kinder- Licensing. mixedmixed withwith The Harvard garten. An avid Iron Chef fan, he intends The profilesprofiles of bothboth thethe bagelbagel and LawLaw ReviewReview and The New to study Culinary Arts at Milwaukee Area hairbraiding cases are witty and informa- Yorker. While many lawyers in the state Technical College. tive. Entitled “Bagels for Free Speech,” the read the four-color glossy magazine, it also “If low-income children are given a solid, article discussing IJ-WA’s sandwich-board attracts an interesting blend of readers quality education it’s like having a validated litigation explains that after Dennis Ballen ranging from corporate CEOs to political passport out of poverty,” says Pilar. “However, displayed a 3-by-2-foot sign advertising his junkies. In the past three years, it has we live in a society where that’s not a real- bagel shop, Blazing Bagels, “[i]ndigestion won several awards for editorial excellence, ity for every child. My children have been soon followed.” Although the City of including many first-place awards from the blessed to be a part of a program that empow- Redmond informed Ballen that it bans Society of Professional Journalists.