PE license by exam???? 4

[CarolinaPE]

Someone asked me the other day if my PE was "by exam". How the heck else can one earn a PE license? I understand and have gotten a license in other states "by comity" but I do not know of any other way to get that first license other than taking the test.

 

[rholder98]

"The problem occurs when the state tries to regulate what goes on beyond its borders."

Exactly. Texas cannot tell me I'm qualified--or not--to design a building in California. Texas is only concerned with what gets built within its own borders. But the building/bridge you mentioned falls under the jurisdiction of the state in which it is ultimately located, where it will be used by the public. States don't try to regulate who can practice engineering elsewhere--they regulate who can practice engineering in their own jurisdiction.

This has been a lot of fun. I enjoy having to think. How about this from the 14th Amendment: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall. . .deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." So if state A says that state B's engineers may automatically practice in state A, isn't A denying equal protection to A's own engineers? Isn't A denying equal protection to the users of the B engineers' designs? We could go on all day.

I guess it all boils down to "Full faith and credit..." vs. the 10th Amendment. The funny thing is that this whole issue was probably dealt with and decided a long time ago.

 

[JAE]

The 10th amendment is probably the least followed of all the amendments. The federal gov't has slowly crept into almost every aspect of our lives. Not what the original founding fathers envisioned at all.

And thus, the concept of the 10th - that the federal government is limited in its powers and the default should always go to the states, has been lost on much of the public.

We're like frogs in water that's gradually brought up to boiling.

 

[HgTX]

But the argument in this thread is the opposite--that the states are taking a power the Constitution does not allow them to have.

Hg

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[JAE]

But my argument is that the constitution, by its very form, doesn't even need to address states powers because the 10th amendment defaults everything to the states except what is specifically given to the feds.

The constitution doesn't simply dish out portions of power between the states and the feds. It assumes that the states have ALL the power, and explicitly limits the powers given to the feds.