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Anatomy of a website rails against occupational licensing with similar invective
to the aforementioned websites. Even the Wall Street Journal has
Conspiracy editorialized for elimination of licensing, as has the Economist and
the National Review. Everybody hates licenses. We should all be
free to pursue whatever endeavors we feel like pursuing.
Prepared by Carl R. C.de Baca, PLS
As far back as 2017, the NSPS Government Affairs Consultant, John
Palatiello put together a white paper and presentation on what he
saw as a systematic, nationwide campaign against occupational
licensing. Libertarian organizations have been operating a blatant
offensive against the whole concept of occupational licensing for
years. JMP spotted this early on, and so did I. Because of various
publications that I have been reading for years, and my previously

So let’s take a quick look at the IJ campaign because right now it
is one of the two most relevant threats against our licenses. I’ll
address the other clear and present threat to us and our licenses
after I am done with exposing the IJ conspiracy.

Just exactly who are the Institute for Justice? Let’s look at their
website:
This all sounds great. Judged only by their mission statement, these
crusading attorneys must be the salt of the earth. At least they are
if you are unlicensed but want to start a business doing my job…

Oregon – 2019
Mats Järlström is cited and fined by the Oregon Board of Engineers
and Land Surveyors for claiming in public meetings, to be an
“engineer”. Järlström had graduated years earlier with a degree in
engineering but was not licensed in Oregon as such. The IJ took his
documented paranoid nature, I’ve been aware of the Libertarian case and sued the Oregon Board on the basis that the Board had
fight against all occupational licensing for at least 10 years. I’ve violated Järlström’s First Amendment right to Free Speech. They
written about it before, in these very pages. So yeah, I’m at it again. won. His right to Free Speech trumped the Board’s right to protect
Take a deep breath, buckle in and channel the X-Files for a few the public. You can now go to Oregon and call yourself an engineer,
minutes, I mean, the TRUTH is out there, right? or a physicist, or even perhaps a doctor. However, I’ll bet adding ESQ
after your name is still a no-no. I mean, c’mon, let’s be reasonable.
Milton Friedman, the uber-capitalist writer & philosopher wrote,
as far back as 1962, that all occupational licensing, including for North Carolina – 2021
physicians, should be eliminated. His theory is that any licensing Michael Jones and his company, 360 Virtual Drone Services, LLC
stifles free trade and that a vigorous marketplace will weed out are cited and fined by the North Carolina Board Examiners for
the weak or incompetent practitioners more effectively than any of Engineers and Land Surveyors for offering surveying services
licensing board ever could. Check out Libertarianism.org, the without a license. The IJ swooped in and took up his case, filing a
Brookings Institution and the Hoover Institution – both are opposed lawsuit against the Board for violation of his First Amendment right
to ALL occupational licensing and offer reasoning that aligns well to Free Speech. Somehow the IJ has equated making orthophotos
with the ideas put forward by Friedman 60 years ago. showing boundary line data taken from public sources, as speech.
No decision has yet come out of this case.

California 2022
Ryan Crownholm and his company MySitePlan.com were cited and
fined for the unlicensed practice of Land Surveying by the Board
of Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists. Crownholm is not
licensed. He and his company harvest available data such as topo,
zoning, property lines, etc. and put this data together in the form of
site plans for various permitting applications, in California and many
other states. The California Board determined that §8726, the
definition of Land Surveying, clearly indicates that making maps and
exhibits with lot lines and dimensions therefrom to proposed fixed
As evidenced by three recent lawsuits, the Institute for Justice works requires a license.
(IJ) appears to be on a crusade against licensing and licensing
boards. When they aren’t busy suing boards of regulation, the IJ The IJ took Crownholm’s case and in their most aggressive lawsuit

18 The Nevada Traverse Vol.50, No.1, 2023