Don Willett nominated to U.S. Appellate Court

Trump Nominates Libertarian-Minded Texas Justice Don Willett to U.S. Appellate Court - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Damon Root:

September 28, 2017 - "President Donald Trump will nominate [Texas Supreme Court Justice Don] Willett to fill one of two vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, the federal appellate court whose jurisdiction covers federal districts in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

"Willett, who appeared on Trump's 2016 list of potential U.S. Supreme Court candidates, is a rising star in conservative and libertarian legal circles and a popular presence on Twitter. If he is successfully confirmed to the 5th Circuit, Willett would immediately rank as one of the most libertarian federal judges in the country.

"Willett is best-known for his aggressive judicial stance in favor of individual rights and economic liberty. In the 2015 case of Patel v. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, for example, Willett lambasted state officials for requiring eyebrow threaders to obtain a costly government license before engaging in the harmless act of threading cotton string through customers' eyebrows in order to remove old hair and skin.

"This case is fundamentally about the American Dream and the unalienable human right to pursue happiness without curtsying to government on bended knee,' he wrote. 'It is about whether government can connive with rent-seeking factions to ration liberty unrestrained, and whether judges must submissively uphold even the most risible encroachments.'

"In Willett's view, both the U.S. Constitution and its Texas counterpart contain judicially enforceable protections for 'the right to earn a living free from unreasonable government intrusion.' In the interests of full disclosure, I should also note that Willett's Patel opinion favorably cites my 2014 book Overruled: The Long War for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Willett has been equally outspoken when it comes to government malfeasance in the criminal justice realm. When the Texas Supreme Court refused to hear the 2014 asset forfeiture case Zaher El-Ali v. Texas, for instance, Willett filed a sharp and memorable dissent. 'Does our Constitution have anything to say about a "presumed guilty" proceeding in which citizens are not arrested or tried, much less convicted, but are nonetheless punished, losing everything they've worked for?' he complained."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/09/28/trump-nominates-libertarian-minded-texas
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Eyebrow threader licensing law struck down in TX

Is This the Most Libertarian Legal Opinion Ever Written? - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Damon Root:

July 8, 2015 - "In a resounding victory last month for economic liberty, the Texas Supreme Court struck down a state licensing law that required eyebrow threaders to complete 750 hours of costly and unnecessary cosmetology training in order to receive the state's permission to charge customers for the harmless act of removing unwanted eyebrow hairs with a loop of cotton thread.

"'The requirement of 750 hours of training to become licensed is not just unreasonable or harsh,' the Texas Supreme Court held in Patel v. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, it is 'so burdensome as to be oppressive'....

"As the Texas high court pointed out, 'persons licensed to apply eyelash extensions — a specialty involving the use of chemicals and a high rate of adverse reactions — are required to undergo only 320 hours of training.' Eyebrow threading, by contrast, is an entirely safe occupation that involves no chemicals and requires only that practitioners follow the most rudimentary of sanitary practices, such as the regular washing of hands. To force would-be eyebrow threaders to spend as much as $9,000 on 750 hours of pointless training in order to obtain a pointless license is practically the definition of arbitrary government....

"Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett filed a lengthy concurring opinion of his own, in which he launched a full-throated defense of economic liberty under both the Texas and U.S. Constitutions.... Here's an excerpt from Justice Willett's superb concurrence:

This case concerns the timeless struggle between personal freedom and government power. Do Texans live under a presumption of liberty or a presumption of restraint? The Texas Constitution confers power — but even more critically, it constrains power. What are the outer-boundary limits on government actions that trample Texans' constitutional right to earn an honest living for themselves and their families? Some observers liken judges to baseball umpires, calling legal balls and strikes, but when it comes to restrictive licensing laws, just how generous is the constitutional strike zone? Must courts rubber-stamp even the most nonsensical encroachments on occupational freedom? Are the most patently farcical and protectionist restrictions nigh unchallengeable, or are there, in fact, judicially enforceable limits?"

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2015/07/08/is-this-the-most-libertarian-legal-opini
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