Week in Review: 751 Success Stories

Pardon us while we take this opportunity to brag about something pretty great. 

In less than one year, hundreds of Arizonans have been able to bust through government bureaucracy and get their licenses to work thanks to a Goldwater Institute law signed by Gov. Doug Ducey in April 2019—and that list is growing all the time. 

Before the law, people who were licensed to practice a profession in another state had to go through the costly and time-consuming process of getting licensed all over again when they moved to Arizona. It’s a problem that has held back workers in every state in the nation—until now. 

Under the Goldwater Institute’s Breaking Down Barriers to Work law, a person with a license to work in another state can get an equivalent license in the Grand Canyon State. “The basic idea is that if a person has been safely and successfully practicing a licensed trade in one state, that person should be qualified to practice it in Arizona,” Goldwater Institute National Investigative Journalist Mark Flatten writes in an In Defense of Liberty post.

Flatten collected data on how the law has worked in practice thus far, and the results are undeniable: The law is helping hundreds of Arizonans get to work. “Since the new law took effect less than a year ago, 751 people have used it to obtain their occupational licenses in fields as varied as cosmetology to construction to dentistry, according to a survey of state licensing entities,” Flatten writes. 

Though Arizona was the first state to enact the law, other states are quickly following the Goldwater Institute’s lead. Pennsylvania and Ohio have passed versions of the law, and more than 20 states are taking similar action.

Read Flatten’s new report here.

What’s the difference between a jellyfish and a lawyer?

We’ve all heard our fair share of lawyer jokes, and we’ll spare you the punchline. But here’s something that’s not a laughing matter: Lawyers all across America are being deprived of their constitutional rights, and the Goldwater Institute has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take action.

North Dakota attorney Arnold Fleck was forced to subsidize a political campaign he disagreed with, because he is required to join the state’s bar association and pay it hundreds of dollars per year for membership dues. Goldwater Institute Vice President for Litigation Timothy Sandefur—who represents Fleck—writes about the case in a new op-ed for RealClearPolicy:

“The First Amendment protects everybody’s right to speak or remain silent—or to join or not join political organizations. Letting the North Dakota Bar Association put its thumb on the scale of a ballot initiative—and to do so with money taken from Fleck’s pocket—is not only wrong, but it also distorts the political process.”

Commentator George Will also urges the Court to take Fleck’s case in his column this week, writing that the Court’s decision in Janusto protect public employees from compelled speech has “given the [C]ourt additional work to do.” It’s time for the Court to act to ensure that attorneys don’t have to subsidize bar associations’ political activity.

An Epic Fail in 38 States

Government control of the marketplace simply doesn’t work. It’s a lesson that has been proven time and time again throughout history. So why do 38 states have a failed public policy that drives up costs, lowers quality, and limits the availability of needed healthcare services?

That law is called certificate of need, and Goldwater Institute Executive Vice President Christina Sandefur looks at all the ways it has gone wrong in a new Federalist Society report. As Sandefur writes, special interests use certificate of need laws to block state-of-the-art surgical centers, critical diagnostic equipment, and facilities to treat mental health issues and addiction, even in the face of overwhelming demonstrated need. 

“It’s no surprise that existing businesses invest time and resources in preserving the anti-competitive power that these laws give them,” Sandefur writes in a new post at In Defense of Liberty.

You can read the full report, Competitor’s Veto: State Certificate of Need Laws Violate State Prohibitions on Monopolies, here.