Last week the Arizona Republic ran a hit piece on a man who gives homeless people free haircuts. Juan Carlos Montes de Oca was once homeless himself, and he found many takers when he started offering the cuts a few years ago. Some of his “clients” hadn’t had a real haircut in years.

Mr. Montes de Oca was studying cosmetology but hadn’t yet received a state-issued license. So the Arizona State Board of Cosmetology opened an investigation. Its executive director pronounced Mr. Montes de Oca’s charity work a “real risk”—never...