Fighting for economic freedom

If the captains of industry could be counted upon to champion free markets and competition, we'd all have a lot less government intrusion in our lives. Alas, businesses too often seek out government regulation to protect their profit margins. And lawmakers are all too willing to go along, growing their budgets, hiring more bureaucrats, raising taxes and placing new restraints on economic freedom -- all to spare the public from lower costs and some made-up harm.

Over the years, the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm, has not only shined a light on laws and licensure cabals established to eliminate competition in certain fields, it has fought to kill them in court. On Tuesday, the organization scored another big win when a federal judge struck down a Connecticut law restricting the use of the title "interior designer."

Interior design firms have been wildly successful in establishing industry cartels. Nearly half the states -- including Nevada -- require citizens to go through a costly, time-consuming certification and licensing process before they can legally work as an interior designer. The regulations exist solely to discourage talented, hard-working citizens from swiping the business of the folks who've already gone to the expense and trouble of gaining licensure.

Which means, if you've got a good eye for colors and you've advised anyone in Nevada on how to add some pop to that spare bedroom, but don't have an interior designer's license, you've broken the law.

In Connecticut, people could work as interior designers without a license, but they couldn't call themselves one. If they did, they could be fined $500 and imprisoned for up to a year. To qualify for a chance at taking the two-day licensing exam, an applicant needed six years of related education and experience.

The Institute for Justice, representing three unlicensed decorators, successfully argued that the law was unconstitutional because it restricted commercial speech -- citizens were denied the right to accurately describe their own profession.

Among the institute's previous cases: challenging Louisiana's licensing of florists, Oklahoma's licensing of casket sellers and the District of Columbia's regulation of hair braiders. Those licensing laws -- and scores of others across America -- have been put in place to deny Americans the ability to make a living in their field of choice.

It's shameful that so many state legislators embrace the political support and campaign contributions that come with their protectionist laws. But it's even worse that so many courts have ruled "state and local governments may concoct any scheme they want to promote their friends' economic interests at the expense of consumers and would-be entrepreneurs," the institute said.

Congratulations to the Institute for Justice on an important victory in its principled fight. We hope it has many more successes.