Oregon’s State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying fined Mats Jarlstrom $500 for the unlicensed practice of engineering. His transgression consisted of researching how red-light cameras work and then pointing out that the cameras misuse the standard mathematical formula for timing traffic lights. He is in fact an engineer—just not a state-licensed engineer.
Regardless, Oregon is violating Jarlstrom’s constitutional rights, explains the Institute for Justice’s Sam Gedge: “Criticizing the government’s engineering isn’t a crime; it’s a constitutional right[.] […] Under the First Amendment, you don’t need to be a licensed lawyer to write an article critical of a Supreme Court decision, you don’t need to be a licensed landscape architect to create a gardening blog, and you don’t need to be a licensed engineer to talk about traffic lights. Whether or not you use math, criticizing the government is a core constitutional right that cannot be hampered by onerous licensing requirements.”
Gedge and the Institute for Justice are representing Jarlstrom in a lawsuit against the state board. [Institute for Justice]
