This article seems to have much more detail about the story. The title is self-explanatory as far as what the licensing board "inferred" from the guy's correspondence.
This is not a free speech issue -- because he would have faced no penalty from the state licensing board if he had simply said, "I am a Swedish dude" or something like that.
The law is too strict here because an alternative definition is plausible and even supportable by tradition.
This is palpably government covering its own ass.