{"id":29494,"date":"2015-01-03T11:44:32","date_gmt":"2015-01-03T16:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=29494"},"modified":"2015-01-03T11:46:13","modified_gmt":"2015-01-03T16:46:13","slug":"last-year-a-kentucky-judge-did-something-no-federal-judge-has-done-since-1932","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2015\/01\/03\/last-year-a-kentucky-judge-did-something-no-federal-judge-has-done-since-1932\/","title":{"rendered":"Last year, “a Kentucky judge did something no federal judge has done since 1932”"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a very long time since a federal judge in Kentucky<\/del><\/font> anywhere in the United States<\/ins><\/font> has struck down a \u201ccertificate of necessity\u201d (CON) regulation<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow, so last year\u2019s most encouraging development in governance might have occurred in February in a U.S. district court in Frankfort, Ky. There, a judge did something no federal judge has done since 1932. By striking down a \u201ccertificate of necessity\u201d (CON) regulation, he struck a blow for liberty and against crony capitalism.<\/p>\n

Although Raleigh Bruner\u2019s Wildcat Moving company in Lexington is named in celebration of the local religion \u2014 University of Kentucky basketball \u2014 this did not immunize him from the opposition of companies with which he wished to compete. In 2012, he formed the company, hoping to operate statewide. Kentucky, however, like some other states, requires movers to obtain a CON. Kentucky\u2019s statute says such certificates shall be issued if the applicant is \u201cfit, willing and able properly to perform\u201d moving services \u2014 and if he can demonstrate that existing moving services are \u201cinadequate,\u201d and that the proposed service \u201cis or will be required by the present or future public convenience and necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Applicants must notify their prospective competitors, who can and often do file protests. This frequently requires applicants to hire lawyers for the hearings. There they bear the burden of proving current inadequacies and future necessities. And they usually lose. From 2007 to 2012, 39 Kentucky applications for CONs drew 114 protests \u2014 none from the general public, all from moving companies. Only three of the 39 persevered through the hearing gantlet; all three were denied CONs. <\/p>\n

Bruner sued, arguing three things: that the CON process violates the Constitution\u2019s equal protection clause because it is a \u201ccompetitors\u2019 veto\u201d that favors existing companies over prospective rivals; that the statute\u2019s requirements (\u201cinadequate,\u201d \u201cconvenience,\u201d \u201cnecessity\u201d) are unconstitutionally vague; and that the process violates the 14th Amendment\u2019s protections of Americans\u2019 \u201cprivileges or immunities,\u201d including the right to earn a living. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a very long time since a federal judge in Kentucky anywhere in the United States has struck down a \u201ccertificate of necessity\u201d (CON) regulation: Mighty oaks from little acorns grow, so last year\u2019s most encouraging development in governance might have occurred in February in a U.S. district court in Frankfort, Ky. There, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[831,9,10,13],"tags":[484,727,660,198,981,848],"class_list":["post-29494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-law","category-liberty","category-usa","tag-competition","tag-cronycapitalism","tag-deregulation","tag-equalrights","tag-kentucky","tag-rentseeking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-7FI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29497,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29494\/revisions\/29497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}