The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Washington D.C. code requiring tour guides to pass a multiple-choice test on history and geography was a violation of free speech rights. The Court allowed that licensing rules that addressed fraud would be a more germane to the licensing of tour guides. (The Washington Post, June 27, 2014, by Rachel Weiner and Wesley Robinson)
Michael McGough, Los Angeles Times, July 11, 2014, wrote that the ruling was welcome for “its ringing libertarian rhetoric.” He quotes the opinion of Justice Janice Rogers Brown, “Perhaps most fundamentally, what evidence suggests market forces are an inadequate defense to seedy, slothful tour guides? To state the obvious, Segs in the City [the company of the plaintiffs], like any other company, already has strong incentives to provide a high-quality consumer experience — namely, the desire to stay in business and maximize a return on its capital investment.”