When a fellow in Oregon spent three years examining the state's automatic traffic cameras to see if they were properly timed -- and found out they weren't -- and then told the Oregon Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying about his discovery, they did what any self-respecting state agency would do: They fined him $500.
See, Mats Järlström had said he was an engineer, but the state of Oregon said it got to say who could call themselves an engineer and who couldn't. And those who could call themselves engineers were people who had registered with the Oregon Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying (and paid the requisite fees, of course). Järlström holds a bachelor of science in engineering from a university in his native Sweden, and has been bugging the state of Oregon since 2013 about the timing of its yellow lights, saying they were too short when drivers had to slow to make right turns. He made the same claim at different national conferences and on local and national media.
The state of Oregon said Järlström had been misrepresenting himself as a Oregon-registered professional engineer when he wasn't. Järlström countered that he had never said he was an Oregon-registered engineer, just an engineer, and he had the right to do that given his education and expertise.
Late in 2017, the state conceded it couldn't restrict people who weren't identifying themselves as Oregon-registered professionals, since they were engaged in the decidedly non-specialist activity of telling the truth about themselves. They refunded his fine and said that as long as Järlström wasn't attempting to represent himself as a professional engineer or make money off that status they would leave him alone. He and his lawyer said, essentially, "That's cute," and pressed to have the state's power to define and fine in cases like his actually removed instead of just relying on the state pinky-swearing it wouldn't do it again.
Last week, a federal judge agreed, and said that Järlström can call himself an engineer as long as he doesn't try to represent himself as an Oregon-registered professional engineer or try to make money off of it, and the state can't tell him no. She cited an obscure statute adopted by the federal government waaaay back in 1791. The state of Oregon, in a rare moment of awareness, had seen the writing on the wall and revised its regulations.
By an Oregon-certified Professional Regulation Reviser, of course. Wouldn't want to just let any speaker of the English language do it; might be someone who could read and understand them without paying someone to interpret.
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