Check if user is logged in

[eluser]misplacedme[/eluser]
[quote author="InsiteFX" date="1309485184"]Try using post_controller hook[/quote]
That probably wouldn't work since they are validating a user(data needs available to the controller)

I have a user security library that I autoload first. It validates the user and I have all the data available to the controller when the time comes. You might want to check into that. You may also be able to use the hook "post_controller_constructor". I haven't used this hook, so I'm not 100% sure that it loads the CI object.