The Tyranny of Occupational Licensure is exposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic

In Historic N.J. tavern could lose liquor license for serving patrons inside during coronavirus shutdown, Katie Kausch (NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) reported:

It could be last call for good for the historic Mount Royal Inn, after the Attorney General’s office filed a petition to have its liquor license revoked.

The Inn violated Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive order twice, allowing patrons to eat and drink inside the restaurant despite a ban in that type of service, the petition alleges.

The Mount Royal Inn, in East Greenwich, Gloucester County, is an historic site. The establishment dates to 1762, and was briefly used as an Army headquarters following the Civil War.

A notice of charges seeking revocation of the liquor license also alleges that the inn failed to have a license or list of employees on premise when inspectors visited on April 7.

The presumptive penalty for all four alleged violations is a 32-day license suspension, but the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control called for a revocation, citing the total circumstances and aggravating factors of the pandemic.

Several other bars have been hit with fines of up to $750 and temporary license suspensions. Significantly, I have seen no indication that any of the customers who voluntarily visited the taverns were hit with charges or penalties. Aren’t they just as guilty of violating the Governor Phil Murphy’s shutdown order? Why do they get off scot free? Doesn’t the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the law mean anything anymore? Business owners are the most persecuted minority in America today.

Here are my Facebook post comments, slightly edited and expanded:

It’s bad enough that bars are fined for violating a politician’s order, despite lack of any evidence that the owner of the bar violated anyone’s rights through force or fraud. Revoking the liquor license of a tavern is tantamount to forcing a private enterprise out of business. To permanently take away a person’s right to earn a living for serving willing customers is a police state tactic that runs contrary to Americanism. But these strong-arm tactics by the NJ Attorney General's office  against the Mount Royal Inn and others exposes a deeper and wider injustice--occupational licensing as such. The right to earn a living is the most fundamental element of the principle that lies at the very heart of this unique nation, the “inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. “Inalienable “ means cannot be surrendered, taken, or transferred. Yet TAKEN is exactly what government-imposed occupational licensing does. Life is not possible without work. To require permission from the state to earn a living is tantamount to saying that you need permission from the state to live.

A right cannot be taken. A permission can be revoked. As a character in the novel Atlas Shrugged warned, one of the signs of approaching societal doom is “when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing.” The danger of permission to earn a living is being broadcast loud and clear by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office. This is not due process of law. This is not the rule of law. This is the tyranny of arbitrary rule of men, the very evil that the Founding Fathers designed our government to prevent.

Occupational licensing is running amuck in this country. It’s time to begin rolling it back. A good place to start is to demand an end to liquor licensing. This is not a “just power” and government officials should not have. No one should have to obtain permission from government bureaucrats to sell a legal product to willing customers. 

New Jersey is not the only state to use licensure as an enforcement cudgel against what amounts to political dissidents. As Reason correspondent Robby Soave reports, Pennsylvania and Colorado have gone down that road as well. Occupational licensure has been justified as a means of ensuring that practicioners are properly trained and as an anti-fraud device. To use it as an enforcement mechanism against dissidents is straight-up tyranny.

Related Reading:

The Permission Society: How the Ruling Class Turns Our Freedoms into Privileges and What We Can Do About It by Timothy Sandefur

The Growing Horror of Occupational Licensure

Licensure Epidemic

It’s Time to End Occupational Licensure

In Answer to a Reader about Licensure

Institute for Justice Continues Fight against Occupational Licensure

Pacific Legal Foundation Scores Moving Victory by Ari Armstrong for The Objective Standard

The Right to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law by Timothy Sandefur

California's War on 'Economic Crimes' Sounds Like Something From Soviet Russia by Steven Greenhut for Reason.com: A state senator wants to crack down on "economic crimes" in the state's underground economy.

Many of these "economic crimes" simply involve working without the proper license. A study from the Institute for Justice finds that California has far more onerous licensing requirements than most other states.

Worried About Economic Inequality? Get Rid of Occupational Licensing by Eric Boehm for Reason.com

State licensing laws for low-income professions limit access to jobs and restrict mobility for those who have them. That's a recipe for economic inequality.

Democratic Governors Threaten Business Owners Who Reopen Ahead of Schedule by Robby Soave for Reason.com