Chad Jarreau is a dirt farmer; dirt farming is literally the manufacture of dirt. For more than 10 years, Jarreau would dig and drain pits of dirt on land he owns in Cutoff, Louisiana, then churn the dirt to create fine-grained sandy dirt useful in construction projects. But in 2011, the South Lafourche Levee District,…

Sally Ladd is a property manager who facilitates short-term vacation rentals in the Pocono Mountains, but Pennsylvania law is forcing her to obtain a real-estate broker’s license—which requires a three-year apprenticeship, passing two exams, and your own storefront—just to keep working.

Nobody should need their competitors’ permission to operate a business. But the government of Louisville is forcing that very requirement on local food trucks. City law bans food trucks from operating within 150 feet of every restaurant in the city that sells similar food. As a result, large swaths of Louisville have become “no-vending” zones,…