The Buckeye Institute filed its brief with the Ohio Supreme Court in Kresevic v. Kimmel, asking the court to accept the case and reverse the lower court rulings, telling the city of Akron that a settlement package Ms. Kresevic received from a former employer does not represent wages and is therefore not subject to the city’s municipal income tax. This case affects the rights of every Ohioan who pays municipal income tax, and if the lower court rulings are allowed to stand, it will allow cities to evade Ohio law.

The Buckeye Institute filed its amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Beckwith v. Frey, a challenge to Maine’s unconstitutional law that imposes a 72-hour waiting period on firearm sales, even when the buyer has already passed a background check. “What is at stake in this case is whether law-abiding citizens—who have already passed a background check—can be denied their constitutionally protected Second Amendment Rights. They cannot.”

The Buckeye Institute filed its amicus brief in Wachter v. James, calling on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to tell New York that its Orwellian “guidance letter” silences speech and violates the First Amendment. “Albany may have dressed up its Orwellian edict as a guidance letter, but its threat to remove school board members from office for expressing opinions different from the government’s—or allowing citizens at public hearings to express contrary opinions—is a clear violation of the First Amendment.” 

The Buckeye Institute filed its response brief in McNutt v. U.S. Department of Justice—one of The Buckeye Institute’s two cases challenging the unconstitutional federal prohibition on home distilling—with the U.S. Supreme Court. In its response, The Buckeye Institute urged the Supreme Court to grant review of McNutt and also Ream v. U.S. Department of Treasury. “The importance of the fundamental constitutional questions in these two cases being addressed together can hardly be overstated.”

The Buckeye Institute filed its amicus brief in Hall v. Fleming, calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case and overturn Locke v. Davey, which wrongly interpreted the U.S. Constitution’s establishment clause and endorsed an unprecedented suspicion of religion in public life. “The Buckeye Institute urges the Supreme Court to take this case and tell Virginia it cannot deny publicly available scholarship funds to college students who major in religious subjects.”

The Buckeye Institute filed its amicus brief in Jouppi v. Alaska, calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to tell Alaska that seizing a plane over a six-pack of beer is the embodiment of an excessive fine that the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibits. “For 14 years, the state of Alaska has been trying to seize Mr. Jouppi’s plane over a six-pack of beer. A $95,000 plane, forfeited for a six-pack of Budweiser, exemplifies the type of financial incentives that are corrupting our criminal justice system.” 

The Buckeye Institute filed its amicus brief in Grand v. University Heights, Ohio, calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the property rights and religious liberty rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. “From the Pilgrims secret meetings in Scrooby Manor, to John Locke’s theories of linking property and religious liberty, to James Madison’s belief that the free exercise of one’s religion is itself a property right, property and freedom of conscience have flowed together throughout American history and must be protected from government tyranny.”

The Buckeye Institute joined Washington Legal Foundation and the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center in filing a second amicus brief in Ohio Telecom Association v. Federal Communications Commission, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit agreed to rehear the case en banc (by the full court), calling on the court to affirm congressional authority over federal rulemaking. 

The Buckeye Institute filed its amicus brief in Viramontes v. Cook Co. and Grant v. Higgins, calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to tell Cook County and other jurisdictions that arbitrary firearm bans violate the U.S. Constitution. “Contrary to popular belief, detachable magazines are nothing new. The public’s visceral reaction against them does not give Cook County, or other jurisdictions, a license to violate the constitutional rights of Americans.”

The Buckeye Institute filed its third amicus brief in the National Prescription Opiate multidistrict litigation case (In re OptumRx) before Judge Dan Polster in the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Ohio. In its brief, Buckeye calls on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to issue a writ of mandamus ordering the district court  to strictly adhere to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that govern all civil court cases.