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yet, named the executive really? This is a war and we should wake up to that fact. Didn’t the
director of the Board as well Nevada Board just go through the sunset process and come out
as every individual board feeling both relevant and permanent? And did the new Governor
member, as defendants. take that into account with his proclamation? What about the
The suite claimed that other 16 states that are pushing toward universal reciprocity? If
the defendants deprived our Board embraces a generous definition of reciprocity, how many
Crownholm of his First new licensees will start practicing in Nevada with limited or no
Amendment right to Free knowledge about our state’s surveying statutes? How long until
Speech and his Fourteenth the IJ lawsuits wear down the Boards of regulation to the point
Amendment right to Due where they are gun shy from citing the unlicensed? When we are
Process and Equal Protection relying on the marketplace to weed out the weak, will it be the
under the law. They also bottom-feeding fly-by-nights with no skin in the game (warning
sued to have §8726 declared multiple mixed metaphor alert) that get sent packing, or will it
void on the basis that it was be the expensive professionals carrying E&O and general liability
too vague to be understood insurance that get weeded out?
by a person of ordinary
intellect. Another aspect of the war on licensing is that licensing boards are,
by their nature, “Monopolistic”. Apparently, we licensed surveyors
The judge in the California case ruled quickly and decisively in favor have a monopoly on the business of surveying. This is a subtly
of the defendants. In extraordinarily clear language the judge different argument than the one about merely restricting free trade.
refuted each and every claim and dismissed the suit “..in it entirety, Actually, it’s pretty much the same, but our country has a 120 year
without leave to amend…” (Yeah, you guessed it, the case is being old hatred of monopolies so invoking that word helps polarize the
appealed by the IJ) conversation and we all know that monopolies are bad. So, we are
the bad guys.
If you are keeping score at home, it’s 1-1 with one case yet
undecided after the first three innings. But this is a 50 inning game Found this at https://reason.com/2022/01/21/want-to-fight-
and the previously described Libertarian slant indicates that the
anti-license people are likely to have a homefield advantage as
the Campaign Against Occupational Licensing spreads across the
country.

What might this homefield advantage look like in a more stable
state, like Nevada, for instance? Well, here’s the summary of two
proclamations made last month by the new Governor of Nevada.
The actual proclamations and this summary are available from the monopolies-fight-occupational-licensing/
Governor’s official website. Before this rant goes on any longer, let me just say that the
Nevada Association of Land Surveyors, ACEC Nevada and our
board or regulation will have to come together, find sufficient
common cause, and develop strategies to combat this campaign
against all of us. It is true that the threats I have identified in
this piece are or will be directed at the Board of Engineers and
Land Surveyors, rather than to you or me directly, but try to
imagine what it would be like practicing our profession with an
attenuated Board or worse, no board at all. No rules, just chaos.

What to do then? NALS could draft a simple letter with strongly
worded talking points, and make it available to all members so
that each of you can download, sign and send to the Governor,
either as a paper letter or digitally through the official website. I
have already registered my stern disapproval of the governor’s
proclamations that way, but I don’t think you want to adopt
Okay then, the conspiracy takes a strategic turn. Read the my language, which was shorn of diplomacy in the heat of the
summary carefully, especially the last line. Each agency, moment. Discuss this at your chapter meetings, encourage
department, board and commission must justify its continued your officers to take a strong message of defiance to the NALS
existence by showing cause for all licensing requirements and must board meeting which will then resonate with the Legislative
provide a “…pathway for facilitating licensure reciprocity.” Scrutiny committee. It’s for challenges like this that NALS was formed,
of the aforementioned anti-licensing websites indicates that if fifty years ago, so let’s do what our founders would expect of us
elimination of licensing is not possible, then universal reciprocity is and fight for our future!
the next best thing. So, Governor Joe is throwing both options out
there and will let the chips fall where they may. Justify your board’s
continued existence, or get rid of it. And if you can keep it in place,
then provide a pathway to maximize reciprocity.

What’s that you say, I’m perhaps reading too much into this? Am I

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