Articles

Seattle asks courts to clear the way for unlawful taxes Late last year, a King County, Washington, trial court ruled in Kunath v. City of Seattle (formerly Shock v. City of Seattle), that Seattle's attempt to levy an income tax on so called "high-earners" was plainly unlawful. In what the local press has called a "Hail Mary," the city has asked ...

Earlier this year, I noted that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals endorsed extreme deference to the government when it rejected a challenge by hair braiders in Missouri to the state's requirement that braiders be licensed as a cosmetologist or barber. In Niang v. Tomblinson, the Supreme Court of the United States has the opportunity to clarify th ...

More and more people are becoming aware of the expansive and burdensome legal barriers that nearly a third of Americans encounter when seeking to earn a living in the profession of their choice. The most onerous of these barriers is the occupational license. Occupational licensing is typical in professions with serious health and fraud risks (e.g., ...

At PLF, we frequently discuss the problems and burdens associated with occupational licensing. Despite the ever-growing chorus of groups (right, left, and libertarian) calling for government at all levels to reconsider the over-licensing of American workers, all too often we've had the displeasure of reporting on courts rubber stamping licensing sc ...

A year ago, I wrote about the occupational licensing case of two African-style hair braiders in Missouri. In that case, even though neither the state-mandated exam or the cosmetology curriculum covers African-style hair braiding, the braiders face the prospect of having their livelihoods taken away unless they spend thousands of dollars and hundred ...

This week I sat down with FreedomWorks to talk about the egregious violation of economic liberty that is occupational licensing.  Nowadays, you need a license to do just about everything under the sun, from dog-watching to helping a friend move.  Such a scheme puts entrepreneurs at the mercy of bureaucrats, even though many of these laws bear no ...

When Arty Vogt purchased a moving business with his wife Stephanie, he never thought that running it would be easy.  But he certainly didn't think that he'd be shut down simply because the existing businesses didn't want to compete with him. Unfortunately, Arty operated in West Virginia, which required movers to obtain a "Certificate of Need."  ...

Today we filed this comment letter with the FTC describing how easing occupational licensing would give Americans a pathway to prosperity.  The FTC has assembled an Economic Liberty Taskforce dedicated to addressing occupational licensing abuses, and is holding a roundtable today about how licensing affects people's ability to move across state ...

Earlier this week Connecticut removed occupational licensing, registration, and certificate requirements for several professions. The de-licensing of an occupation is especially notable because of its rarity. A 2015 study authored by Dr. Robert J. Thornton and Dr. Edward J. Timmons, and published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, found tha ...