Center for Individual Rights

08/03/2026

“This is a happy day for every professional who wants to speak truthfully about their work,” Juliet Catrett added. “We’re thankful to CIR and Pelican Institute for Public Policy for standing with us and making sure we could honestly describe the care we provide.”

This week, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction barring the Louisiana State Board of Psychologists from enforcing the statute against the plaintiffs, which means that licensed therapists Julie and Juliet can again put the name “Psychological Wellness Institute” back on their door.

The Center for Individual Rights and Pelican Institute for Public Policy won a major First Amendment victory for their clients when a federal judge blocked the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists from enforcing a law that made it a crime for licensed therapists to describe their own....

07/29/2026

Iowa AG Brenna Bird and Missouri AG Catherine Hanaway published an op-ed today making the case for our lawsuit against New York's greenhouse gas reporting rule.

New York can regulate New York. It cannot force farmers, fuel producers, and businesses in Iowa and Missouri to comply with its rules simply because their product might eventually be sold there.

Read the full op-ed at the link in the comments below.

07/23/2026

For years, Portland increased funding for some of its public schools based on the racial makeup on the student body. When Richard Raseley learned that his daughter’s school received less under this race-based formula, he took action.

Join Richard and a panel of experts for a critical conversation about the continued use of racial preferences in American Education—and what you can do to defend the equal protection of the law.

Register today: https://cir-usa.org/stopping-race-based-school-policies-live-event/

07/08/2026

In 2020, Dr. Norman Wang published a peer-reviewed article questioning race-based decision-making in medical education. What followed: he was stripped of his leadership role, publicly branded a racist, and watched a medical journal retract his work after institutional pressure.

After a six-year legal battle, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals embraced his version of events and restored his right to hold Pitt and UPMC accountable in court.
https://cir-usa.org/press-releases/pitt-professors-defamation-and-retaliation-claims-are-restored-for-trial/

07/04/2026

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." - Declaration of Independence 🎆

06/12/2026

CIR’s Executive Legal Officer Michael Rosman, said, “We brought Ultima on a simple premise: The government cannot decide what business wins a federal contract based on the owner’s race. A federal court agreed—and now the SBA is proposing to write that principle into its rules and to admit, in its own words, the discrimination it imposed for nearly four decades. That is a real victory for equal treatment under the law.”

CIR and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty are now in court to end the same racial presumption across the rest of the federal government.

06/02/2026

Parents cannot make informed medical decisions without medical information.

The Johnsons’ minor daughter has a serious medical condition that requires lifelong monitoring. That means that her parents need real-time access to their daughter’s records: test results, doctors’ notes, scans, and next steps.

The hospital says that unless their minor daughter meets alone with the hospital and gives her permission, the Johnsons will have to request paper records – and wait up to 30 days to receive them. That’s a violation of federal HIPAA law and the Johnstons’ constitutional rights as parents.

CIR is suing to enforce the Johnsons’ rights – because parents shouldn’t need a hospital permission slip to see their own kids’ medical records.

Parents' fundamental rights are threatened by a hospital system. The Center for Individual Rights is fighting back.

05/15/2026

Under the Constitution, each state is equal. No state is senior, no state is subordinate, and no state gets to govern its neighbors.

That is why CIR is representing Iowa, Missouri, and the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce in a new lawsuit challenging New York’s effort to impose greenhouse-gas reporting requirements on out-of-state biofuel producers.

New York may regulate within its own borders. But it cannot force businesses in other states to comply with Albany’s policy choices.

We are challenging an illegal imposition of New York’s regulatory power on producers and businesses in other states.

05/06/2026

BREAKING: CIR returns our Corporate Transparency Act case to the Supreme Court, where we're defending small business owners against an "Orwellian" law that treats entrepreneurs like suspects. Read more:

Washington, DC—Running a dairy farm shouldn’t require registering your personal information in a federal law-enforcement database. But that’s exactly what Congress demanded when it passed the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). Today, the Center for Individual Rights (CIR) returned to the Suprem...

04/17/2026

Meet Richard Raseley: Portland dad, longtime school volunteer, and founder of Families for Fair School Funding. Now, Richard and FFSF are suing to overturn two of Portland Public Schools’ funding policies that illegally discriminate based on race.

Portland Public School’s “equity funding” policy explicitly grants additional staff and resources to schools based in part on the racial composition of their student bodies. And its new fundraising policy cuts off millions of dollars in community support for kids.

CIR is proud to represent Richard and Families for Fair School Funding in their challenge to Portland’s race-based school funding policies. Learn more about FFSF and their fight for fairness:

This lawsuit is challenging two District policies that distribute school resources based on race and ban parents from donating to their own children’s schools.