Jennifer Perkins serves as a staff attorney in the Institute for Justice's Arizona Chapter. She litigates school choice, property rights, economic liberty and other constitutional cases in both federal and state courts.
Currently, Jennifer is lead counsel challenging Pinal County, Arizona’s absurd dance ban. In a classic example of grassroots tyranny, Pinal County officials have embarked on a campaign of harassment against local entrepreneur Dale Bell, who wants only to earn an honest living running his steakhouse, San Tan Flat. The County asserts that because Dale allows his patrons to dance outdoors, he is actually running an outdoor dancehall in violation of county zoning ordinances.
Jennifer has teamed up with Senior Attorney Clark Neily to mount challenges to the ongoing national effort by interior design industry insiders to “cartelize” the industry. The team scored an early victory in New Mexico with a First Amendment challenge to interior design regulations prohibiting use of the terms "interior design" or "interior designer" by clients providing those services. Incredibly, several states permit anyone to offer interior design services, but require state issued licenses-for which applicants must demonstrate at least 6 years combined education and experience-before designers may truthfully and accurately advertise the services they offer. Due to IJ’s lawsuit, the New Mexico legislature stepped in to alter the regulations, and permit all designers to accurately describe themselves and their services.
Jennifer also served as lead counsel in a state court challenge to the Arizona Structural Pest Control Commission's unreasonable regulation of gardeners and landscape maintenance workers in Arizona. That lawsuit resulted in legislative changes to exempt gardeners and landscape maintenance workers from the state's license requirements-one of which required them to demonstrate 3,000 hours of field experience before allowing them to spray over the counter weed killing products, such as Round Up.
Jennifer received her law degree cum laude from the Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law in 2002. She received her undergraduate degree from The George Washington University in 1999. Before coming to the Institute, Jennifer worked for one year as an associate in a complex commercial litigation firm and then accompanied the firm's senior partner James O. Browning to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico as his first law clerk.
Jennifer currently serves as the President of the Federalist Society's Phoenix Lawyers Chapter.