Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway wants to shut down RJ Bruner's Lexington moving company and send his 31 employees packing.
Wildcat Moving was fined thousands of dollars in 2011 by the state for operating a moving company without state permission. Bruner took a good look at the arbitrary and capricious state application process and the 2010 MBA graduate filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging violation of his Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law.
He is right. And this week, United States District Judge Danny C. Reeves sided with him in refusing Conway's motion to dismiss his lawsuit. Kentucky law gives existing moving companies the right to veto new applicants wishing to join the marketplace.
At his next press conference, Conway should be forced to explain why he is fighting against this young Kentuckian and his small army of employees instead of fighting for them.
Senator Tom Buford's Senate Bill 132 would eliminate this process for companies moving "household goods" but leave it in place for those moving people. His bill needs to become law and then we should go back and strike the whole ridiculous idea of government deciding who gets to be a market participant and who doesn't.
Getting this right across the board would only help Kentucky consumers and providers of such absurdly over-regulated products and services as health care, financial services and labor.
