License to Lead Tours?
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2010-09-23/license-lead-tours
Not everyone is qualified to lead a tour of the nation's capital -- which is why the city has rules to keep unqualified tour guides from ripping off customers. But the owners of one D.C. tour business are challenging the constitutionality of those rules in court. We talk with the head of D.C.'s tour guide guild and learn more about the rules that govern the tour guide industry.
Guests
Jim Heegeman
President, The Guild of Professional Tour Guides of Washington, D.C.
Robert McNamara
Staff Attorney, Institute for Justice
Comments
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Do cabbies get tour licenses to say, "We're passing the White House." I think there is a distinction between identifying and describing."
Generally speaking, we license people to insure public safety. The danger is obvious for a doctor or a cab-driver who might impact physical safety. But could one not argue that mis-information also poses a real threat to wellbeing? One certainly has a consitutional right to spread their beliefs, but there seems a compelling public interest to provide people with the information needed to evaluate the risks posed by information.
Actually, we license people to protect the public from scams.
This lawsuit seems to be an effort by Segway to hire college students and simply not license them. They could, of course, license them. Have you seen what the Segway Tours cost? The company is making plenty of money.
There are certainly licensed guides available to work for Segway, but they might not be willing to work for what Segway is willing to pay. So, this whole silly lawsuit is not really about free speech at all. It is about Segway's bottom line. The "free speech" rubrik is just a cover for the real agenda.
What's next from the Institute of Justice? A challenge to the DC Bar exam? After all lawyers are not permitted to advocate in court if they have not passed. I am sure we will hear more from the Institute of Justice which is opposed to all government regulation. Foolish litigation.
Kojo, I generally like your programs but this one just gave more media play to a very silly lawsuit.
i think certification and licensing should be optional and only be used as a way to make your business stand apart from others.
the last tour i took was in gettysburg pa, it was a haunted ghost tour. would we have these people licensed and who would decide what ghost tales could be told and which couldnt.
Optional licensing just would not work. Why go through it if you do not have to? If licensing is made optional in DC, it would be the end of assuring that guides have at least a baseline of knowledge. Anyone could hold himself out as a tour guide--even those who know nothing.