Johnson v. Minnesota Board of Veterinary Medicine  
Challenging Minnesota's Veterinary Licensing Laws

	IJ Client Chris Johnson

Veterinarians have captured Minnesota’s Board of Veterinary Medicine and are using its power to exclude competitors no matter how small the market or how low-risk the area of animal care.

An example of this is the crackdown on so-called “horse teeth floaters”—individuals who manually file down points and level a domestic horse’s teeth.  (Horses need to have their teeth “floated”—an important but painless exercise—because their modern diet is not sufficiently abrasive to maintain the evenness of their teeth.  If the points are not floated, it may become painful for a domestic horse to chew or hold a bit.)

The traditional occupation of a horse teeth floating offers a lifetime of opportunity for rural Minnesotans who love horses.  But Minnesota’s Board of Veterinary Medicine is keeping individuals like Chris Johnson out of business and is subjecting him to fines and incarceration for practicing the occupation he loves.

More than just horse teeth filing, the Institute for Justice Minnesota Chapter will show that when private interests capture a State’s licensing board, they stifle completion, raise prices and reduce consumer choices.  Wednesday, August 16 2006, IJ-Minnesota filed a lawsuit against the Minnesota Board of Veterinary Medicine in the First Judicial District to free Chris Johnson from unnecessary and irrational occupational licensing laws and set precedent to challenge other boards.

This suit is the fourth case in IJ-Minnesota’s campaign to restore economic liberty as a civil right under both the Minnesota and U.S. Constitutions.