Tag: occupational licensing

NM: GOP uses racism to promote anti-registrant occupational limits to win votes

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Source: abqjournal.com 9/29/22 An altered image of darkened hands cutting a white child’s hair sure does appear to play on racist fears and should be denounced by the political party that created it. The Republican Party of New Mexico recently mailed flyers to voters in several state House districts showing a barber with darkened hands. “Do you want a sex offender cutting your child’s hair?” the flyer asks. Democrats are calling this political flyer created by the Republican Party of New Mexico a racist “dog whistle.” The flyers cite two…

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MA: ‘Glaring failure’ in criminal and sex offender background checks for professional license applicants

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Source: boston25news.com 9/15/21 BOSTON — The state agency that oversees the granting of professional licenses for hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts workers is falling short when it comes to criminal and sex offender background checks on those applicants, according to a newly-released audit. Auditor Suzanne Bump’s report finds the the Division of Professional Licensure (DPL), which is now referred to as the Division of Occupational Licensure, has been unable to determine whether its boards and commissions were performing Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) and Sex Offender Record Information (SORI) checks…

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NJ: Senate approves bill that would ban people listed on the registry from medical licensing

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[pix11.com – 6/4/21] TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey State Senate unanimously approved a bill Friday that would prohibit the licensing of any health care worker convicted of a sexual offense. The bill would also reform the state’s chiropractor board after a person listed on the registry and  on lifetime parole in Florida had his license reinstated by that board. Read the full article  

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NJ: Senate Bill Would Reform Chiropractor Board, Ban Sex Offenders from All Health Care Positions

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[einnews.com – 5/13/21] Acting in response to the “irresponsible” action by the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners in renewing the professional license of a convicted child sex offender, a Senate committee today approved legislation authored by Senate President Steve Sweeney, Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg and Senator Joe Vitale that would reform the board and prohibit the licensing of any health care worker convicted of a sex offense. The bill, S-3494, would add two public members to the 11-person chiropractic board and expand its responsibilities in reviewing the qualifications of…

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NJ: Murphy replaces three members of board that restored license to convicted sex offender

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[newjerseyglobe.com – 3/4/21] Gov. Phil Murphy has replaced three members of the embattled State Board of Chiropractic Examiners after a controversial vote to reinstate the license of a convicted sex offender from Paramus. Murphy is dumping Brett Wartenberg, Thomas Senatore and Paul Lyons and replacing them with Kelly Blunder, Uchenna Abba Onyeani and Michael Kaufman. All six are chiropractors. Despite warnings from the attorney general, the board voted to reinstate the license Dr. Bryan Bajakian, who in 2008 was convicted on charges of luring or enticing underage girls and illegally…

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NJ: Gov. Murphy: Sex Offender Getting NJ License Back ‘Reprehensible’

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[patch.com – 2/26/21] Gov. Murphy called for changes after the NJ chiropractic board gave a sex offender his license back. PARAMUS, NJ — Gov. Phil Murphy called for changes after a former Bergen County chiropractor and registered sex offender gained approval to have his license reinstated after a years-long fight. The New Jersey Board of Chiropractic Examiners made the decision to reinstate Bryan K. Bajakian’s license for a five-year probationary period, according to documents from the board. Murphy called the decision “reprensible” and “unacceptable.” “Folks who voted to reinstate this…

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Collateral Consequences in Occupational Licensing Act

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[http://ccresourcecenter.org – 6/29/18] We’ve noted in recent posts the numerous states that, just in the past three or four months, have enacted broad occupational licensing reforms affecting people with a criminal record. Many of these new laws have been influenced by a model developed by the Institute for Justice (IJ), a libertarian public interest law firm that has been litigating and lobbying to reduce barriers to work for more than two decades. In turn, states like Indiana, Kansas, Tennessee and Wisconsin have built upon IJ’s model to enact even more…

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MI: How occupational licensing laws harm public safety and the formerly incarcerated

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[www.rstreet.org – 5/31/18] Key Points 1) Many occupational licensing laws condition employment on “good moral character,” but how exactly one demonstrates “good moral character” is entirely undefined. 2) Vague language affords boards extensive latitude in denying otherwise qualified people for reasons that may be entirely unrelated to the responsibilities of the job. 3) Not only do these practices fail to increase public safety, recent research has shown that they may make communities less safe by increasing the odds that a person will return to a life of crime. Read more…

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