This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, December 12, 2022.

I'm Caleb Brown.

In 2015, the Supreme Court detailed the conflict of interest inherent in giving state boards of licensure,

often market participants participants the ability to

limit competition in those very markets. States for the most part haven't paid much

attention to the court's decision and that's just one problem.

Steve Slavinsky, a researcher at the Pacific Legal Foundation,

details a larger problem for the millions of people

who require a license to do their jobs.

It's been said many times here and elsewhere that a massive

fraction and arguably an unconscionable fraction of the American workforce requires a

government-approved license in order to do that job.

And these licenses are handed out by licensing boards at the state level, and those licensing boards are then appointed by governors or some other specific

individual or groups is charged with approving members, but one wrinkle that I've spoken about with licensing boards are even how those appointees are even selected. So how does that

happen? So this is unlike most government appointments. Typically you'll have a governor who will come to the state legislature and say,

we have to fill these seats.

They're appointed positions.

The Constitution says,

I as the governor have the power to appoint people

as long as the state legislature deems them to be

competent and reasonable and worth you know being a member of the board or this

appointment committee or something like that and that's typically how it works for pretty much every appointment position in most states.

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