Wesley started at PLF in 2024 after more than 15 years at the Institute for Justice, where he litigated public-interest cases at every level of the American judicial system.
He is best known for a unanimous victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in Timbs v. Indiana, 139 U.S. 682 (2019), which held that the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause applies when state and local governments use civil forfeiture to take a person’s property. Following the high court’s decision, the Indiana Supreme Court adopted a first-of-its-kind test for determining when forfeitures are constitutionally excessive and Tyson Timbs won back his car at trial. Wesley later wrote an article about the case: What Is an Excessive Fine? Seven Questions to Ask After Timbs, 72 Ala. L. Rev. 581 (2021).
Wesley also won a landmark victory for economic liberty in Patel v. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, 469 S.W.3d 69 (Tex. 2015), when the Texas Supreme Court struck down a 750-hour training requirement for eyebrow threading—a simple skill using a single strand of cotton thread to remove unwanted hair—and announced a new state constitutional standard for determining when regulation of a person’s occupation is overly burdensome. The trial court later entered a permanent injunction against the state’s regulations and awarded $420,000 in attorneys’ fees.
At PLF, Wesley’s practice focuses on property rights, though he shares his extensive trial and appellate experience to litigation teams across the organization.
He graduated from the University of Virginia in 2003 as an Echols Scholar, with a degree in religious studies, and graduated from the University of Washington in 2008, with a law degree.
Wesley is a member of the bar only in the states of Washington and Texas.