What Neil Gorsuch Gets Wrong About Judges and Government Power
As the author of a book called Overruled: The Long War for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court, I naturally took an interest when Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch published a book late last year called Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law. But life moves pretty fast sometimes, and I didn’t get around to reading Gorsuch’s book (co-written with his former law clerk Janie Nitze) until earlier this year. Then, to my surprise, I found Over Ruled to be extremely disappointing.
Allow me to explain why.
Gorsuch’s book persuasively argues that “too much law” has harmed the American people. “When law expands rapidly in size and complexity,” he writes, “when important rules can change (and change back again) with ease and little warning, when important guidance is sometimes found only in an official’s desk drawer, who are the winners and losers?”
Take the issue of occupational licensing, an area of law that has vastly expanded in recent years. Many licensing laws serve no legitimate health or safety purpose. Yet the failure to follow such unnecessary laws nonetheless carries a costly penalty. In some cases, the punishment can be ruinous.
That was nearly the experience of Ashish Patel, an Indian immigrant living in Texas who wanted to work in the traditional craft of eyebrow threading. The problem for Patel was that Texas had labeled eyebrow threading as “cosmetology” and required would-be threaders to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours obtaining a cosmetology license. Adding insult to injury, none of the 750 hours of state-mandated cosmetology classes even dealt with eyebrow threading.
And what is eyebrow threading? Simply this: Passing a loop of cotton thread over the eyebrows to remove unwanted hairs. No chemicals. No sharp objects. We’re not talking about unlicensed brain surgery here.
Patel and several others, represented by the ace lawyers at the Institute for Justice, filed suit against the licensing scheme and ultimately prevailed before the Texas Supreme Court. Their legal efforts vindicated the liberty to work in a safe occupation without first obtaining the government’s pointless and expensive approval.
Gorsuc
Article from Reason.com
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