g5000
Diamond Member
- Nov 26, 2011
- 131,655
- 75,715
- 2,605
The Supreme Court blew a chance to fix its second-worst decision ever
A woman who has a special needs child of her own is trying to create a business which provides respite care to other families with special needs children.
Respite care is where a caregiver watches over the children while the parents take a break to buy groceries, visit a doctor, etc.
This woman has been denied a license by the Louisiana Health Department. Their mandate is to determine if there is a "need" for such a business.
There most clearly is a need in the community, but the Health Department has decided they already have oversight over too many other businesses and just don't have the time or manpower to regulate another one.
From the link:
By what standard does it measure need? Its own needs. Incredibly, the department says that this barrier to entry into the caregiving field “self-evidently” serves the public interest by giving department bureaucrats fewer caregivers to scrutinize. Never mind any shortage of Louisiana respite care. Newell-Davis is denied government’s permission to practice her craft so that government can conserve its regulatory energies. She cannot work at all so that the bureaucrats can work less than they otherwise would.
George Will makes a very good case that this is a clear violation of the "privileges or immunities" clause of the 14th amendment.
I agree.
Here are some thoughts from the chief author of the 14th amendment:
Liberty, our own American constitutional liberty, is the right “to know, to argue, and to utter freely according to conscience.” It is the liberty, sir, to know your duty and to do it. It is the liberty, sir, to work in an honest calling and contribute by your toil in some sort to the support of yourself, to the support of your fellow-men, and to be secure in the enjoyment of the fruits of your toil. Justice, sir, to establish which this Constitution was ordained, the people themselves being witness, is to give every man his due. The justice to be established by the Constitution is the attribute of God, as to do justice is the perpetual obligation of men and nations. Let justice for all, by the power and majesty of American law be established for all, so that th epoorest man in his hovel on the frontiers of your widely extended domain, bearing with him toward the setting sun the symbols of civilization, and laying in the wilderness the foundations of new commonwealths, may be made as secure in his person and property and the prince in his palace or the king on his throne.
Let's hope the US Supreme Court has the wisdom to right this wrong.
Last edited: