Pacific Legal to Challenge Jones Act

Despite the fact that it has decimated the U.S. shipbuilding industry, handicaps the economies of outlying parts of the country, and even inspires hoop-jumping worthy of Soviet Russia (See video embedded below.), our legislative and executive branches seem to be quite happy to leave the protectionist Jones Act alone.

The Bayside Canadian Railway ran back and forth on 200 feet of track in an effort to get around the even more ridiculous requirements of the Jones Act.

But now, thanks to the intrepid legal team at the Pacific Legal Foundation, there is hope that this anachronistic violation of individual rights and roadblock to prosperity might finally be consigned to history:

With businesses trapped under high costs and crippled by impossibly unfair competition, the economic damage inflicted on citizens in Hawaii and Alaska alone has already reached billions of dollars -- and continues to mount.

The Jones Act isn't just bad for business -- it's illegal. The Constitution's Port Preference Clause prohibits Congress from favoring ports of one state over those of another to ensure equal treatment in interstate commerce. The Jones Act, however, was specifically designed to disadvantage Hawaii and Alaska, then territories, despite strong opposition to the law's discriminatory effects from Hawaiian and Alaskan officials.

Despite many attempts to repeal or reform the Jones Act, including the recent "Open America's Water Act," powerful entrenched interests maintain this protectionist scheme.

Represented at no charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, Bob and Kōloa Rum Company are fighting back with a federal lawsuit challenging the Jones Act's constitutionality under the Port Preference Clause. Victory would restore equal footing among Hawaiian businesses and their competitors and finally cast away one of the nation's most egregious examples of economic protectionism. [bold added]

This is wonderful news and could represent an unexpected win for freedom of trade (and perhaps also a teachable moment) in this new era of economic illiteracy and indifference to individual rights.

-- CAV