My research brief today looks at the ongoing de-licensing revolution in the states, lately joined by Nebraska.
I also wonder why North Carolina is so far sitting out the de-licensing revolution. After all, thanks to the Supreme Court ruling against the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners in 2015, we may have unwittingly started it. That ruling removed the presumption that licensing boards have antitrust immunity and “appears to have tipped the scales, finally, in favor of reform.”
Here is how de-licensing looked the 40 years prior to NC Dental, and after:
De-licensing before NC Dental Board
1972: Virginia (naturopaths)
1977: Colorado (private investigators)
1979: Wisconsin (watchmakers)
1981: Colorado (funeral directors)
1983: Alabama (barbers; relicensed in 2013)
1983: Minnesota (watchmakers)
1994: Colorado (egg candlers)
2004: Alabama (interior designers)De-licensing after NC Dental Board
2016: Arizona (4 occupations)
2016: Rhode Island (27 occupations)
2016: Tennessee (systematic restructuring: Right to Earn a Living Act)
2017: Arizona (systematic restructuring: Right to Earn a Living Act)
2017: Nebraska (bank CEOs)
2017: Mississippi (systematic restructuring: Occupational Board Compliance Act)
2017: Connecticut (system streamlining, affecting 4 – 6 occupations)
2017: Illinois (2 occupations, as well as ending the practice of denying licenses for irrelevant conviction records)
2018: Nebraska (animal massage therapy)
2018: Nebraska (systematic restructuring: Occupational License Reform Act)Note: This does not take into account de-licensing of hair braiders. According to the Institute for Justice, 13 states have de-licensed hair braiders, most of them in 2015 or later: Arizona (2004); Washington (declared exempt, 2005); Georgia (2006); Utah (struck down in federal court) and Virginia (2012); Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, and Texas (2015); and Delaware, Kentucky, Nebraska, and West Virginia (2016).
