Amicus Brief: Carbin v. Massachusetts Board of State Examiners of Plumbers and Gas Fitters

John Carbin is a certified aircraft mechanic and Black Hawk crew chief who ran into issues when he wanted to handle his own plumbing work at his home in Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, it’s illegal for homeowners to perform their own plumbing work without a state-issued license. Despite asking for authorization, Carbin was denied and turned to the courts to argue that the ban violated his fundamental right to repair his home. The district court dismissed his claim with two sentences of analysis, and the First Circuit affirmed without briefing or analysis.

The Manhattan Institute has joined the Buckeye Institute on a brief in support of Carbin’s petition for certiorari. The lower courts simply ratified the law by applying the “rational basis test” and allowed the state to assert the law is necessary for “health and safety.” The courts didn’t look to whether and how home plumbing is dangerous or harmful, whether the restrictions make sense, or whether the restrictions just protect existing licensed plumbers. The right to fix your property is inherent in the right to own property, and restrictions on that right need some form of justification more than the words “health and safety.” The government needs explain the risk to the public and how the regulation addressed that risk. The rational basis test is quite often a form of judicial abdication, and it needs to be clarified by the Court.

Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.

Trevor Burrus is a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Photo: PJPhoto69 / iStock / Getty Images Plus