Articles

Is plowing a field "dredging and filling" under the Clean Water Act? Food and Drug Administration wants Texas business owner to litigate her civil rights case in D.C. Eleventh Circuit vindicates Chmielewski family's property rights PLF urges Supreme Court to take up hair braiders' case Supreme Court strikes down anti-gambling law be ...

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 ...

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."  Th ...

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 that t ...

This week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an exciting new website for its recently formed Economic Liberty Task Force. Aside from signaling how serious the FTC's Acting Chairman, Maureen Ohlhausen, is in using the commission's resources to advocate for occupational licensing reform, the website will also serve as a valuable resource fo ...

The Oregonian has published my op-ed on PLF client David Hansen, who was fined $30,000 for making marketing drawings without an architect's license.  As I write in the op-ed: David's story is just one example in a trend of licensing bodies interpreting their authority broadly to prevent people from competing with licensees. Both ends of the politic ...

Those of us who oppose over-abundant occupational licensing schemes due to the burdens they impose on employment and the economy without supplying many benefits for the public, frequently note that web-based services like Yelp, and Uber and Lyft's 5-star rating system are good examples of alternatives to licensing. As it turns out, one Washington l ...