Kentucky’s Attorney General will not defend the state’s anti-competitive licensing law

October 15, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

This morning, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway announced that he will not try to defend the constitutionality of that state’s licensing law for moving companies, which Pacific Legal Foundation is challenging in a lawsuit filed in August. In that case, we represent entrepreneur Raleigh Bruner, who’s suing to defend his right to earn a living against a state law that basically forces people to get permission from all the state’s existing moving companies before they can offer moving services to the public. We sued the state’s Division of Motor Carriers, and also the Attorney General, the state’s highest law enforcement officer. But in a stipulation signed by both sides and filed today, the AG declined to defend the statute, and asked the court to dismiss him as a defendant (and we agreed). The case still goes forward, but it’s telling that the Attorney General won’t even try to defend this arbitrary, absurd, anti-competitive, and unconstitutional restriction on economic freedom.

Update: I have edited this post to correct the PDF, which had a minor error.