License needed for an advice column?

We know government is paternalistic and controlling, but this is ridiculous. In Kentucky, the Board of Examiners of Psychology went after nationally syndicated columnist John Rosemond for dispensing parenting advice without a state psychology license.

Rosemond, who has written his syndicated column since 1976, was served with a cease-and-desist letter in 2013 after the Kentucky psychology board received a complaint about a column in which Rosemond advised parents to take away their underachieving teenager’s privileges until his behavior and schoolwork improved. The licensing board also objected to Rosemond’s use of “family psychologist” in his column’s byline, despite the fact he is a licensed psychologist in his home state, North Carolina.

Fortunately, U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove saw the licensing board’s actions for what they were: “an exercise of regulatory zeal” that violated Rosemond’s free speech rights and abused occupational licensing laws. …

If the state was allowed to censor a newspaper columnist such as Rosemond, Van Tatenhove reasoned, “it is difficult to understand how Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz and countless other self-help gurus would not also be in the government’s cross hairs.”

“Thankfully, this ruling ensures that parents have the right to decide for themselves where they want to get parenting advice,” Rosemond said in a statement for the Institute for Justice, the libertarian public-interest law firm that represented him.

As courts consider more cases of governments using occupational licensing laws to restrict free speech, allow us to dispense some free advice: Consumers are perfectly capable of making their own decisions about whom they should listen to or do business with. They do not need government licensing boards to violate the economic liberties and freedom of speech of those who choose to make their livings in legal occupations.

— The Orange County Register