The legal fight against occupational licenses reached new heights this week as a North Carolina drone operator urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case that he shouldn’t need a state surveying license to revive his aerial mapping business.
Michael Jones, the owner of 360 Virtual Drone Services, was threatened with prosecution by the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors if he did not stop selling his aerial photography and mapping to businesses that wanted his services. Getting such a license was a non-starter, his lawyers said, given that it would take nine years working under an established surveyor.