California entrepreneur Jake Molieri founded his business, SnakeOut, with a simple mission: Keep dogs and their owners safe. In addition to offering snake removal services, SnakeOut also provides rattlesnake aversion training—safety courses that teach dogs to identify and avoid dangerous local wildlife, helping keep both animals and their owners safe. The training is so valuable that even law enforcement agencies have hired Jake to train their K-9s.
Jake’s business has provided California property owners and pet lovers with a valuable two-part service—that is, until he faced the arbitrary regulatory roadblocks mounted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).
The CDFW limits the use of “native wildlife” in business ventures, allowing free classes and select “educational” projects. Although SnakeOut’s work is plainly educational, the CDFW has failed to process Jake’s permit application for two years. Without that permit, Jake is left in a regulatory limbo in which the CDFW prohibits SnakeOut from operating aversion training as a business. The CDFW will allow him to operate only if he does it for free or if he exclusively uses non-native or albino rattlesnakes.
The government’s refusal to allow Jake to charge for his aversion training courses violates the First Amendment’s protections for commercial speech. Small business owners have the right to pursue their vocations without suffering harm under arbitrary, burdensome regulations that favor some business models over others, in violation of the First Amendment’s free speech protections and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
“Speech is protected under the First Amendment—paid or unpaid,” said Anastasia Boden, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation. “Small business owners like Jake deserve to speak and work freely, without fearing that charging a fee could put them on the wrong side of the law.”
Represented at no cost by Pacific Legal Foundation, Jake is suing to challenge the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s arbitrary and restrictive regulations.
What’s At Stake?
- Americans have the constitutional right to pursue their vocations without burdensome regulations that favor some business models over others.
- Regulatory schemes that use irrelevant characteristics to draw arbitrary distinctions violate the fundamental principle of equal treatment under law.
- The government cannot force business owners to choose between providing their services for free or facing regulatory penalties. The First Amendment protects businesses’ right to teach and share knowledge. That right doesn't disappear when businesses charge for their time and expertise.
