I wanted to share some exciting news: IJ is headed to the Arizona Supreme Court to defend the right to earn an honest living!

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Dear John,

I wanted to share some exciting news: IJ is headed to the Arizona Supreme Court to defend the right to earn an honest living!

We launched this case several years ago after an Arizona licensing board threatened to close Greg Mills’ doors and fine him thousands of dollars because he does not have a state-issued engineering license—despite his decades-long career in engineering.

Greg worked as an engineer at major manufacturing companies in Arizona for 30 years. Throughout his career, Greg designed, analyzed, tested, and built circuits for everything from flashlights to satellites.

In 2008, Greg opened his own firm, dedicated to serving startups and small businesses with various engineering needs. Greg operated his firm for 12 years without any issues, and his services were in high demand among Arizona’s growing startup community. That is, until the Arizona Board of Technical Registration demanded he either obtain an engineering license or close his company for good.

Arizona says that anyone who advertises themselves as an engineer or does engineering of any form must be a licensed “professional engineer,” unless they are the full-time employee of someone else. Greg, like the vast majority of engineers working in America, is not a PE. And “professional engineers” don’t do the kind of engineering work that Greg does. Greg engineers products while PEs engineer buildings, bridges, etc. to ensure construction satisfies certain standards. To obtain this state-sanctioned license, Greg would need to close his company and work for a licensed engineer for eight years, doing engineering that is different than what Greg has always done.

But here’s the thing: The law exempts engineers at manufacturing companies, so if Greg were to go back and work for a larger company, then the Board would allow him to work as an engineer.

If Greg is qualified to work for a manufacturer, then he is qualified to work for himself. The Board’s actions not only violate his right to earn a living, but make it next to impossible for small, entrepreneurial engineering businesses to thrive in Arizona.

This isn’t the first time IJ has challenged an engineering licensing law. In 2017, Oregon went after unlicensed engineer Mats Järlström because he devised a new formula for timing traffic lights. IJ won that case, and Mats’ formula went on to become a new standard for traffic engineers. We also won on behalf of Wayne Nutt, a retired North Carolina engineer targeted by a state board after he testified as an expert witness in a flooding case.

We lost Greg’s challenge in the lower courts, but now the Arizona Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case. We are excited to have the opportunity to head to the state’s highest court and rein in the Board’s unchecked power.

Scott

Scott G. Bullock

President and Chief Counsel

Institute for Justice

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