Center for Justice

The Pelican Center for Justice is dedicated to advancing pro-freedom litigation to ensure the rights of Louisiana’s working families are protected. Aggressively litigious, anti-freedom special interests are using the courtroom to fight policy battles, which makes defending the rights of citizens all the more important. Now, more than ever, Louisiana needs liberty-focused strategic litigation, and the Pelican Center for Justice is working tirelessly to ensure the freedoms of all Louisianans are intact.

Candidate Questionnaire 2023

Candidate Questionnaire 2023

Does your candidate support jobs and opportunities in Louisiana? Election Day 2023 is fast approaching. Join us in asking candidates if they support transformational change for Louisiana. Use our candidate questionnaire as a resource. 

By Team Pelican

Veterinarians Sue Louisiana Board Over Anti-Work Rule

Veterinarians Sue Louisiana Board Over Anti-Work Rule

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BATON ROUGE, LA – Two highly qualified veterinarians today filed a lawsuit against the Louisiana Board of Veterinary Medicine, challenging an arbitrary rule that prohibits them from practicing their profession. Dr. Lara Stooksbury and Courtney Breen, who had active licenses in other states and over 20 years of combined experience as veterinarians,...

By James Baehr

Oral Argument: Pelican to Defend Attorney’s Free Speech Rights

Oral Argument: Pelican to Defend Attorney’s Free Speech Rights

New Orleans – The Pelican Institute will advocate for the free speech rights of a Louisiana attorney in an oral argument before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans on Tuesday, July 11 at 9 a.m., in the case of Boudreaux v. Louisiana State Bar Association. In that case, the...

By James Baehr

Landmark Supreme Court Student Loan Decision A Victory for Louisiana Small Businessman and the Constitutional Balance of Power

Landmark Supreme Court Student Loan Decision A Victory for Louisiana Small Businessman and the Constitutional Balance of Power

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEW ORLEANS – In a landmark victory for American democracy and the separation of powers, the Supreme Court today struck down the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional Public Debt Cancellation program—delivering a victory for Pelican Institute Center for Justice client Tommy Badeaux, a Louisiana lawyer who sued the Administration for its vast overreach of...

By Sarah Harbison

Pelican Institute to Supreme Court: Overturn 150-Year-Old New Orleans Precedent that Blocks Economic Freedom

Pelican Institute to Supreme Court: Overturn 150-Year-Old New Orleans Precedent that Blocks Economic Freedom

Ursula Newell-Davis is a social worker who cannot practice her profession in Louisiana because the state government says limiting the number of social workers “eases its regulatory burden.” Yet, in part because of a 150-year-old U.S. Supreme Court precedent that to this day restricts individual liberties, this justification is all the state needs to block...

By Sarah Harbison

News Release: Pelican Launches Right to Earn a Living Initiative

News Release: Pelican Launches Right to Earn a Living Initiative

New Orleans– Every day, countless Louisianans must jump through costly and irrational government-imposed regulatory hoops just to earn a living. But now, the Pelican Institute’s Center for Justice is launching a new effort to fight back on behalf of the hardworking men and women of Louisiana: the Right to Earn A Living Litigation Initiative. Our...

By James Baehr

SCOTUS Rightly Concerned Over Executive Overreach In Student Loan Cases

SCOTUS Rightly Concerned Over Executive Overreach In Student Loan Cases

Sarah Harbison, General Counsel at the Pelican Institute Center for Justice, released the following statement after the Supreme Court held oral arguments in Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown regarding the Biden Administration’s student loan debt cancellation program: “The Justices were rightly concerned that forgiving half a trillion dollars in student loan...

By Chris Lowery

Op-Ed: The NDAA Won’t Stop Biden’s Back-Door Military Vaccine Separations

Op-Ed: The NDAA Won’t Stop Biden’s Back-Door Military Vaccine Separations

Originally published in Center Square This past week, many rejoiced that a National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) that eliminates the COVID-19 military vaccine mandate was signed into law. That mandate resulted in the separation or threat of separation of thousands of service members who chose not to take the COVID-19 vaccine because of their sincerely-held...

By James Baehr

PeliCast: The NDAA Won’t Fix Two Years of Bad Policies

PeliCast: The NDAA Won’t Fix Two Years of Bad Policies

On this PeliCast, Master Sergeant Rob Galey joins the Pelican Institute’s Special Counsel, James Baehr, to discuss their recent lawsuit against the Biden Administration over the U.S. Army’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate. The two discuss Master Sergeant Galey’s calling and career in the military, why he respectfully declined to take the vaccine, and how the newest...

By Chris Lowery

Release: Appeal Filed in Halstead Bead Remote-Seller Sales Tax Case

Release: Appeal Filed in Halstead Bead Remote-Seller Sales Tax Case

For media inquiries please contact Chris Lowery (225) 726-1822 or chris@pelicaninstitute.org New Orleans — Yesterday, Halstead Bead, represented by a team from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s Taxpayer Defense Center, the Pelican Institute, and the Goldwater Institute, filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in its ongoing lawsuit that...

By Chris Lowery

Federal Judge Blocks Overreaching Government Mandates on Head Start

Federal Judge Blocks Overreaching Government Mandates on Head Start

Today, a judge in Louisiana’s Western District ruled that the federal government cannot mandate Head Start program teachers, staff, and volunteers in twenty-four states to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, nor can it require that adults and students wear masks. This ruling marks the second time the Pelican Institute and Liberty Justice Center clients have stopped...

By Sarah Harbison

Judge Certifies Air Force Class Action Protecting Servicemembers from Wrongful Separation

Judge Certifies Air Force Class Action Protecting Servicemembers from Wrongful Separation

A federal judge has advanced a class action lawsuit consisting of all active and reserve Air Force servicemembers with religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and granted a preliminary injunction protecting those airmen from being discharged as their case progresses. In March, the Pelican Center for Justice filed suit in the Western District of...

By James Baehr