IJ Issue
Occupational Speech
Government officials are increasingly relying on occupational licensing laws to stifle speech and infringe on the right to earn an honest living.
Your speech doesn’t lose First Amendment protection just because it’s related to your occupation. When IJ opened in 1991, many in the legal establishment considered that a radical idea. Now, thanks to IJ’s decades of litigation and advocacy, it’s the law of the land.
Countless Americans—from tour guides to lawyers—earn their living in occupations that consist primarily of speech. But government officials use occupational licensing laws to stifle this speech and infringe on the right to earn an honest living, often at the behest of politically connected industries.
The very idea that Americans would have to register with the government before providing information or communicating a message is antithetical to this country’s tradition of free speech and open inquiry. But for decades courts routinely applied the so-called “Professional Speech” doctrine to exempt occupational speech from the First Amendment.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected this doctrine in NIFLA v. Becerra. Speaking for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote: “[T]his Court has not recognized ‘professional speech’ as a separate category of speech. Speech is not unprotected merely because it is uttered by ‘professionals.”
Though NIFLA wasn’t an IJ case, it builds directly on IJ’s cutting-edge litigation on occupational speech. Some of the people whose rights we have vindicated include:
- Tour guides in Charleston, Savannah, Philadelphia, and D.C. prevented from working unless they passed government-mandated tests.
- Mats Järlström, an Oregon man with an engineering degree fined for practicing “unlicensed” engineering after he suggested a new math equation for the timing of traffic lights.
- Bob Smith, owner of the Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School, threatened with closure of his school for admitting students who hadn’t graduated high school.
- End-of-life doulas in California and Indiana told to stop providing practical advice and emotional support related to someone’s passing—part of a pattern of licensing bodies aggressively protecting the traditional funeral industry from competition.
IJ continues fighting to ensure courts give occupational speech the full First Amendment protection it deserves.
First Amendment Issues
Commercial Speech
The Institute for Justice fights on behalf of entrepreneurs to uphold the deeply American values of free expression and free enterprise.
First Amendment Retaliation
IJ Is Leading the National Fight Against Backdoor Censorship Accomplished Through Government Retaliation Against Speech In many ways, the First Amendment has never been more robust as a…
Occupational Speech
Government officials are increasingly relying on occupational licensing laws to stifle speech and infringe on the right to earn an honest living.
Political Speech
The Institute for Justice opposes censorship and strongly believes that an unfettered marketplace of ideas strengthens political discourse.
Sign Codes
Under the First Amendment, the government cannot play the role of critic and censor messages that it deems disagreeable.
Occupational Speech Cases
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Speech
North Carolina Nonprofit and Paralegals Sue State Over First Amendment Right to Give Legal Advice
North Carolina nonprofit and paralegals challenge state's ban on nonlawyers providing legal advice, which prevents them from helping people complete simple court forms.
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech
California Regulators Put Anti-spam Crusader Out of Business
Jay Fink has a simple business. If you’re a Californian getting too much spam, he’ll look through your junk folder and pull out the emails that might violate California’s anti-spam law.
First Amendment | Occupational Speech
Equine Massage Teacher Sues State of Minnesota in Federal Court for Violation of First Amendment Right to Occupational Speech
The freedom of speech is a cherished Constitutional protection, framed in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. It is a right many Americans take for granted and exercise on…
First Amendment | Occupational Speech
Small Business Owner Challenges Indiana’s Unconstitutional Restrictions on Discussing End-of-Life Care
To many, death is a taboo subject. But not to Lauren Richwine, founder of Death Done Differently, a consultant who specializes in helping those with a terminal diagnosis and their families plan for the final days of life and what will happen after death. But the state of Indiana wants to silence this speech, which is why Lauren today teamed up with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to file a federal free-speech lawsuit to tell the state that it cannot silence these important conversations about death.
First Amendment | Occupational Speech
Upsolve v. Letitia James – The Right to Provide Legal Advice
Upsolve wants to train volunteers to help low-income New Yorkers with simple legal matters, but unauthorized practice of law rules prevent them from helping their neighbors.
Occupational Speech News
Virginia Counselor Wins Lawsuit Challenging District of Columbia’s Restrictions on Teletherapy Sessions
WASHINGTON—On Wednesday, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia struck down a D.C. law that barred therapists from other jurisdictions from doing online teletherapy visits with clients in D.C. The decision comes nearly six years…
Fort Wayne Death Doula Secures Final Victory in First Amendment Lawsuit Challenging State’s Restrictions on Discussing End-of-Life Care
FORT WAYNE, Ind.—Today, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana entered a consent decree cementing a Fort Wayne death doula’s victory in her First Amendment lawsuit challenging the state of…
D.C. Court Authorizes ‘Community Justice Worker’ Program to Help Close Legal Needs Gap
WASHINGTON—On Thursday, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals issued an order authorizing a Community Justice Worker (CJW) program, which allows nonlawyers to provide certain civil legal services in Washington, D.C., through existing nonprofit legal-service…
Victory: Appeals Court Sides with Fort Wayne Death Doula in First Amendment Lawsuit
CHICAGO—On Thursday, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Fort Wayne death doula Lauren Richwine in her First Amendment lawsuit challenging the state…
NY Nonprofit Upsolve Will Take Right-to-Provide Legal Advice Case to Appeals Court
Today at 10 a.m. (EDT), attorneys from the Institute for Justice will join New York nonprofit Upsolve at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to argue that providing legal advice…
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case Challenging New York’s Restrictions on Teletherapy
WASHINGTON—Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear a First Amendment case brought by a Virginia-based counselor challenging New York’s restrictions on teletherapy across state lines.
Occupational Speech Research
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech | Vending
Bottleneckers: The Origins of Occupational Licensing and What Can Be Done About Its Excesses
At this moment, a campaign is being waged in America’s state capitals. Its purpose? To protect the public from the menace of unregulated music therapists. A music therapist “directs and participates in instrumental and vocal…
Economic Liberty | First Amendment | Occupational Licensing | Occupational Speech | Vending
Bottleneckers: Gaming the Government for Power and Private Profit
The Left, Right and Center all hate them: powerful special interests who use government power for their own private benefit. In an era when the Left hates “fat cats” and the Right despises “crony capitalists,” now…