Too often, government officials are more concerned about protecting special interests than they are the rights of entrepreneurs.  That’s the case in San Juan County, Wash., where the County council recently passed a law designed to shut down hardworking entrepreneur Gary Franco, a longtime produce vendor.

The ordinance, passed at the behest of politically connected brick-and-mortar businesses, requires vendors to obtain a government permit and pay $50 per day for the right to earn their living.  Were that not bad enough, to obtain the permit, the vendors must receive the consent of competing brick-and-mortar businesses.  In other words, the ordinance gives business owners the right to veto their competition.

While the County maintained that requiring a permit to vend was necessary to protect the public health and safety, it didn’t force all vendors to obtain a permit.  Rather, it carved out exemptions for its own favored categories of vendors—for example, farmers who sell their own produce; ice cream trucks; and nonprofit and charitable groups, such as the Lions Club or Kiwanis.  Vendors like Gary pose no more of problem than these favored, exempt vendors, yet they are still required to pay the government and obtain the blessing of their competitors in order to earn an honest living.    

That is about to change.  Assisted by the Institute for Justice Washington Chapter, Gary is challenging San Juan’s ordinance in order to vindicate the right of all Washingtonians to earn an honest living free of the kind of economic protectionism behind San Juan’s unconstitutional ordinance.