Totally embarassing...Philadelphia in the news again over dumb stuff...Seriously, Philadelphia has so many problems, and Nutter promised sooo much like the second coming....but while people ask daily when Nutter is gonna get down to it, he takes a side street over to Philadelphia Tour Guides. Mayor Nutter seems to think that it's the City's right to regulate tour guides? Is it the City's right to regulate Freedom of Speech in the birthplace of it? Or is it just another way to grub money? Isn't the visitor's tax...err unregulated parking fees enough? Shouldn't he be worrying about real issues? Murder? Drugs? Crime? Homelessness? Education? The economy?

If Nutter thinks a priority is regulating tour guides does that mean he is going to be giving money RIGHT now to all the historic sites in Philadelphia that need money? Landmarks like the Powell House and Hill Pysick Keith House which need help? The Todd House? The Bishop White House? The Shambles at Head House Square? Independence Hall? Grublethorpe? The Fairmount Park Houses?

Should Nutter be worried about things like the fact that it's not Philadelphia but Filthadelphia? Shouldn't Nutter leave free speech alone in the birthplace of this country? Is this to be Philadelphia's Fourth of July Message then? That free speech is regulated by government? Is this Moscow?

This whole issue is silly, and here's hoping the Institute for Justice hands Nutter his arse on a stupid initiative...however, those tour guides cooooooould stand to take a history refresher and learn not to confuse urban legend with actual history...but to force them to take tests and pay extra fees for a license when the jobs don't pay squat to begin with? Balderdash.

Institute for Justice: Tour Guides File Federal First Amendment Lawsuit
Seek to Vindicate the Freedom to Speak in Philadelphia
WEB RELEASE: July 2, 2008
Media Contact:
Bob Ewing (703) 682-9320 [First Amendment]

May the city of Philadelphia subject tour guides to hundreds of dollars in fines for engaging in unauthorized talking?

This is the question the Institute for Justice (IJ) seeks to answer in a federal lawsuit filed today, two days before Philadelphia celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The suit is brought on behalf of three Philadelphia tour guides—Mike Tait, Josh Silver and Ann Boulais—seeking to overturn a law enacted in April that will make it illegal for anyone like them to give a tour of much of the city’s downtown area without first passing a test and obtaining a government license—without, in essence, getting the government’s permission to speak. Effective in October, unlicensed tour guides can face fines of up to $300 per violation and have their businesses shut down.

“The government cannot be in the business of deciding who may speak and who may not,” said Robert McNamara, a staff attorney with the Institute for Justice, a national public interest law firm with a history of defending free speech and the rights of entrepreneurs. “The Constitution protects your right to communicate for a living, whether you are a journalist, a musician or a tour guide. It makes no more sense to let city officials decide who is allowed to talk about history than it would to let them decide who is allowed to talk about sports.”

The new law makes it illegal to give a tour for compensation of the city’s main tourist area without first submitting a written application, paying a fee, providing proof of insurance and passing a written examination in order to be granted a license to tour. The program will be administered and the test developed by an administrative agency to be named by the mayor’s office. No test has been made public.....The irony of forbidding people to talk about Philadelphia’s history—including the history of the Framers’ enshrining fundamental American liberties in the Constitution....“It is the right of every American to challenge laws that are unfair and wrong,” said Mike Tait. “As a matter of fact, that was fundamentally what the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia—and the birth of our nation—was all about.”

“This unfortunate law is part of a nationwide explosion of occupational licensing that has occurred in recent decades,” said Institute for Justice President and General Counsel Chip Mellor. “The city’s decision to force tour guides to obtain government licenses before speaking is just another surprising example of government gone wrong and precisely the type of regulation the Institute was created to combat.”

Founded in 1991, the Virginia-based Institute for Justice has represented individuals nationwide who successfully defended their free speech rights and ability to earn an honest living in the occupations of their choice. These cases include the landmark legal battle to open the interstate shipment of wine, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down discriminatory state shipping laws that hampered small wineries as well as consumers. IJ also freed online advertisers from complying with California’s onerous real estate licensing regime and secured the first federal appeals court victory for economic liberty since the New Deal, this on behalf of casket retailers in Tennessee.

Group sues over Philly tour guide testing lawWednesday, July 02, 2008 | 4:09 PM

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - July 2, 2008 -- Citing their free speech rights, three tour guides filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging an ordinance that will require them to pass a history test and get a license before speaking to groups about the history of the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and other landmarks.

Mayor Michael Nutter signed the law in April amid concerns some guides were perpetuating gross inaccuracies, including the false claims that Benjamin Franklin had 69 illegitimate children and that three-time widow Betsy Ross killed her husbands.
But the guides, backed by a public-interest law firm, argue the city has gone too far and want the law overruled. They say their constitutional rights are being violated in the very city where the Declaration of Independence was adopted 232 years ago.

3 Philadelphia tour guides sue over new rules requiring them to pass history test
2008-07-02 22:32:06

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Citing their free speech rights, three tour guides filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging an ordinance that will require them to pass a history test and get a license before speaking to groups about the history of the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and other landmarks.

Mayor Michael Nutter signed the law in April amid concerns some guides were perpetuating gross inaccuracies, including the false claims that Benjamin Franklin had 69 illegitimate children and that three-time widow Betsy Ross killed her husbands.

But the guides, backed by a public-interest law firm, argue the city has gone too far and want the law overruled. They say their constitutional rights are being violated in the very city where the Declaration of Independence was adopted 232 years ago.
"Mistakes happen everywhere," said Robert McNamara, attorney for the Institute of Justice, which filed the suit. "But just because mistakes occasionally happen doesn't mean the government can license who can talk. People have the right to decide who they want to listen to."

City officials say they are trying to protect the very history that brings millions of tourists to Philadelphia and generates billions of dollars in revenue every year. They don't want anyone leaving town believing that it is Ben Franklin atop City Hall (it's William Penn) or that homes were once taxed based on how wide they were.
The tests are to be required beginning in October. Washington, New Orleans and Charleston, South Carolina, have similar laws regulating tour guides. The suit is the first to challenge such tour guide regulations, McNamara said....