Live May 18, 2026 | Yaron Brook Show
(Bonus Episode Season 12, Episode 10)
Protecting Freedom in the Courts -- Conversation with Joshua Windham | Yaron Brook Show
Can the Courts Still Defend Freedom? Joshua Windham on ICE, Surveillance, Property Rights & the Future of Liberty
What happens when government power collides with individual rights? And are America’s courts still willing to defend freedom when it matters most?
In this bonus episode of the Yaron Brook Show, Yaron sits down with Institute for Justice senior attorney Joshua Windham to discuss ICE detentions, government surveillance, property rights, economic liberty, and the growing battle over the Fourth Amendment.
From wrongful detentions and warrantless searches to attacks on economic freedom, this conversation explores how fragile liberty becomes when courts defer to government power — and why state constitutions may become the next major defense of individual rights.
The episode also dives into constitutional interpretation, judicial philosophy, Scalia’s legacy, asylum law, Weimar Germany parallels, and the future of the Supreme Court.
If you care about freedom, constitutional limits, and the future of individual rights in America, this is a must-watch conversation.
Watch Now: https://youtube.com/live/SXMjmDf0Cls
About:
Joshua Windham is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice and co-director of IJ’s Project on the Fourth Amendment. He specializes in constitutional litigation involving economic liberty, property rights, and government surveillance, and has won major state constitutional victories protecting individual rights in Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
Learn more about Joshua Windham here: https://ij.org/staff/joshua-windham/
Learn more about the Institute for Justice: https://ij.org/
Main Discussion
0:00 — Why the Courts Matter More Than Ever
0:43 — Introduction & Welcoming Joshua Windham
1:42 — Inside the Institute for Justice
4:06 — ICE Rights Violations & the Upcoming Supreme Court Case
9:52 — The Repeated Detentions of Leo Garcia Venegas
12:16 — Constitutional Limits on Law Enforcement
19:01 — How Common Are Wrongful Detentions?
21:15 — Government Surveillance & Fourth Amendment Battles
26:44 — State Constitutions & Property Rights
28:01 — Can the Supreme Court Be Challenged on Surveillance?
30:45 — Building Legal Precedents Against Government Overreach
40:10 — Legislation vs Litigation: Where Change Happens
41:47 — Why Economic Freedom Gets Less Protection Than Speech
47:41 — Real Estate Licensing & the Right to Earn a Living
51:27 — Economic Liberty Cases & State Courts
55:30 — Why Individual Rights Still Matter
56:02 — Rationality, Philosophy & the Judiciary
58:27 — The Difficulty of Legislative Testimony
Live Audience Questions
59:26 — Is There a Better Constitutional Method Than Textualism or “Living Constitution”?
1:03:21 — First Supreme Court Argument: Advice for a Young Attorney
1:06:34 — Convenience vs Privacy: Can Surveillance Tech Be Ethical?
1:07:51 — Are Courts Standing Up to Trump?
1:10:03 — Weimar Germany: Why Didn’t the Courts Stop Tyranny?
1:10:41 — Birthright Citizenship & Constitutional Interpretation
1:12:03 — Should Judges Go Beyond the Arguments Presented?
1:15:36 — Voting Rights Act & Recent Court Rulings
1:16:16 — The Origins of the Exclusionary Rule
1:18:04 — How Lawyers Can Improve Legal Writing
1:20:32 — Antonin Scalia & the Fourth Amendment
1:23:49 — Which State Supreme Courts Are Most Interesting?
1:27:33 — Is This the Most Pro-Free Speech Supreme Court Ever?
1:30:39 — The Current State of Asylum Law
1:31:31 — Should the Eighth Amendment Have More Teeth?
1:37:08 — Should the Supreme Court Expand?
1:38:10 — More Questions in the Pinned Comment
#Constitution #SupremeCourt #FourthAmendment #PropertyRights #EconomicFreedom #GovernmentSurveillance #IndividualRights #InstituteForJustice #FreeSpeech #capitalism #Objectivism
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Yaron is the executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute and a world class speaker. He is the coauthor of the national best-seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, Equal is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality and In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance. He speaks around the world on a variety of topics including the morality of capitalism, Ayn Rand and her philosophy, finance and economics, and the value of inequality.
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