Bob Ewing
2008-06-10 07:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

Mercedes Clemens is a successful small-business entrepreneur from Maryland who is filing a lawsuit today to help correct a gross violation of justice that has plagued our nation for well over a century.

Mercedes has a thriving massage practice in Rockville that offers both human and animal massage. In addition to being a licensed massage therapist, Mercedes is certified in equine massage — a growing trade that calms horses, improving their temperament and making them easier to handle — and has even taught the practice to others.

In February, two politically connected groups decided to use their power to monopolize the practice of animal massage and shut down Mercedes’ business. The Maryland Board of Chiropractic Examiners, which licenses massage therapists who work on humans, joined forces with the Maryland State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners to threaten Mercedes with thousands of dollars in fines and criminal prosecution unless she spends four years in veterinary school — where massage is not even taught.

Suggesting that only people with veterinary degrees are capable of massaging animals is like suggesting that only people with medical degrees are capable of massaging humans. Preventing Mercedes from working in her chosen profession has nothing to do with consumer or animal safety and everything to do with the financial interests of the veterinary cartel.

Like countless individuals across the nation, Mercedes is a regular American who has the misfortune to be in a situation where special interests have enough muscle to upend her life. She is not an isolated case. Due to continued neglect by courts to protect the right to earn a living, powerful groups in various occupations throughout the country have a green light to abuse the political process. 

Unfortunately, the temptation to use government to throw up barriers against competitors goes back a long way in our nation’s history. Since the 1870s, state governments have used a tragic U.S. Supreme Court ruling — which permitted a butcher monopoly — to justify regulations concocted to help all sorts of entrenched interests. 

Over time, politically connected groups mastered the art of dressing up protectionist laws as public-spirited measures, throwing open the door for widespread manipulation.

For example, in Minnesota, African hair braiders faced a cosmetology cartel that imposed fines and jail on braiders that did not sit through more than 1,500 hours of training at a cost of $15,000 to obtain a government-issued license to practice their trade. The training included no instruction in African braiding. 

In Texas, legendary horseman Carl Mitz has cared for the teeth of 100,000 horses over the past 22 years. Yet — due to a law enacted for the benefit of his competitors — he now faces prison for operating his business without a veterinary license.

And in California last fall, the government threatened out-of-state contractors with 16 months in prison and $10,000 in fines if they tried rebuilding areas devastated by fires without having the proper debris-removal license.

These examples barely scratch the surface of the problem. In the past few decades, there has been a nationwide explosion of protectionist regulations in the United States. In 1981, there were about 80 occupations with such barriers to entry; today there are more than 1,000.

Politicians should not be able to get away with passing these laws, but since the 1870s courts have largely turned a blind eye, pretending as if such regulations exist for legitimate purposes. The result has been ludicrous justifications for protectionism, as in licensing florists is OK because it protects the public against “infected dirt.”

Thankfully, after many years of neglect, courts are finally waking up. The Minnesota braiders joined with the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that fights for the philosophy that all individuals deserve equal protection under the law, and had the regulation struck down.

Mercedes understands that the courts play a vital role in protecting fundamental rights.  As William Mellor and Robert Levy write in their new book, “The Dirty Dozen,” “Like all rights, the right to earn an honest living is meaningful only if it can be enforced and protected.”

That is why today Mercedes has teamed up with the Institute for Justice. In doing so, she seeks to vindicate all Maryland entrepreneurs who want nothing more than to work in the occupations they love.

Bob Ewing is the assistant director of communications for the Institute for Justice, the nation’s leading legal advocate for economic liberty.