We first wrote about R.J. Bruner in our weekly Bluegrass Beacon column. Now, Bruner’s story is going national.

Bruner is the Lexington resident who wanted to start a moving company only to discover that he first had to get the permission – and I’m not even kidding here – from existing movers before he could get paid to relocate Aunt Susie from Lexington to Louisville.

I wrote Bruner's story in my weekly Bluegrass Beacon column:

Being required to seek permission from would-be competitors before opening shop is so contemptible that R. J. Bruner, founder of Wildcat Moving Company who has a master’s degree in business from the University of Kentucky, said he did not know about the requirement and would never have thought it possible for such a law even to exist.

Bruner said his company – which has not yet obtained a CON – was hit with $2,000 fines on at least four different occasions when the firm’s moving trucks were stopped by state law enforcement officers.

“It’s been a nightmare,” Bruner said. “The law doesn’t make any sense – it’s unconstitutional and corrupt.”

It also doesn’t make sense why Senate Bill 132, which exempts moving companies from CON requirements, languished in the House after passing the Senate during this year’s legislative session.

How can an entrepreneur like Bruner, who employs 30 Kentuckians and earns awards as one of the best moving companies in Kentucky, be neglected by so many of the same politicians who claim the commonwealth’s greatest need is “jobs?”

Fortunately, Bruner is not without help.

Along with the publicity given the case by the Bluegrass Beacon column, which is read by Kentuckians in newspapers statewide, the Pacific Legal Foundation is representing him in a federal lawsuit against state officials for denying his right to earn a living, which is protected by the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.

Also the John Stossel will host a Fox News Channel on Saturday at 9 p.m. (eastern) that features a special “War on The Little Guy” – the story of R.J. Bruner.

If Bruner is forced to get permission from competitors to keep the doors of his company open, then all entrepreneurs in the commonwealth will have seen yet a bit more of their liberty slip away.