Here’s a great story of a small-business owner in Seattle fighting onerous regulations that restrict competition in the name of the “public interest.” From yesterday’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

A Senegal-born hair braider who learned that traditional trade from her grandmother is challenging Washington laws she says could drive her out of business, or out of the state.

Attorneys representing Benta Diaw, 36, filed suit yesterday in King County Superior Court, seeking to exempt Diaw from having to be licensed as a cosmetologist or a barber to continue operating Touba African Hairbraiding, her one-person Belltown salon…

Yesterday’s suit alleges that Washington law violates Diaw’s state and federal constitutional rights to equal protection and due process by requiring her to take 1,600 hours of cosmetology training in such topics as coloring hair, bleaching hair, giving pedicures and trimming nose hair.African hair braiding uses no chemicals and doesn’t involve pedicures or haircutting, while cosmetology training doesn’t address hair braiding at all. The training costs about $7,500 and usually takes a year or more to obtain…

Some minimal training standards make sense, but this is ridiculous. I wrote about this topic several years ago here. The fine folks at the Institute for Justice are helping Ms. Diaw with her lawsuit. More background info at the IJ site here.

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