Since we've been talking about legality issues in our industry, this is just some "fun" reading on other laws being abused:
George Will tells the story of a small salon in Arizona that opened a fish therapy service "wherein small fish from China nibble dead skin from people's feet. Arizona's Board of Cosmetology decided the fish were performing pedicures, and because all pedicure instruments must be sterilized and fish cannot be, the therapy must be discontinued."
The EPA and the Clean Water Act have led to a number of questionable enforcements:
Pozagi and his 7,000 tires, in the Wall Street Journal and in the Washington Examiner.
Flushing unknowingly here.
A case specifically about logging roads.
And I think many folks have been following an Idaho couple's fight with the EPA. Background on the case from the Los Angeles Times notes that:
When the Sacketts, who contended there were no wetlands on the property, sought to challenge the compliance order, they were told by EPA officials and later by a federal judge and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that they had no right to a hearing. Instead, they were told to comply with the order first and then seek a permit to resume building. They weren't entitled to a hearing until the agency had imposed a fine on them, the appeals court said.
They took it all the way to the Supreme Court, where, in a 9-0 ruling, the court concluded that the EPA can't terrorize Americans via regulation without allowing them a day in court. Furthermore, "in a concurrence in last week's Supreme Court decision, Justice Samuel Alito took the somewhat unusual step of calling out Congress for its vague language, encouraging the legislative branch to clarify the Clean Water Act."
(Photo: Flickr/yamakazz)
