The history of public interest law traces back almost a century, encompassing the legal strategies of the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union that helped end segregation and gain critical victories for free speech and freedom of the press. Today’s public interest firms apply those lessons in working to protect a different set of constitutional freedoms, from economic liberties to property rights cases.

Scott Bullock, who heads the libertarian, Virginia-based Institute for Justice, examines their role, their impact, and the emergence of state-based public interest groups in the interest of helping underrepresented constituencies and/or promoting change. He is best known for pushing back against the use of eminent domain for private development in a notable case, Kelo v. City of New London, that reached the Supreme Court.