For the past six years Caitlin Mills, 16, and Abigail Mills, 14, sold Girl Scout cookies for a couple of weeks from a stand in their driveway of their Hazelwood home.. Earlier this year, however, one neighbor complained that her dogs were barking at the people stopping to buy cookies and that there was increased traffic on the street from people stopping to buy cookies.<\/p>\n
After investigating, Hazelwood officials informed\u00a0 the girls that a city law governing \u201chome occupations\u201d prohibited them from selling cookies in their driveway.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaitlin and Abigail knew that the Constitution protects citizens\u2019 rights to use their property in harmless ways,\u201d said Dave Roland, the girls\u2019 attorney and director of litigation at the Freedom Center of Missouri.\u00a0 \u201cThey went to the court with a very simple question: Can a local government really ban the traditional, kid-run concession stand?<\/p>\n
On Friday Aug. 12, a local judge dismissed the girls\u2019 petition without comment or explanation.<\/p>\n
“This case is extremely important because it is the first in the nation to challenge the growing trend of local officials preventing kids from selling lemonade, baked goods, or produce to passersby,\u201d\u00a0 said Roland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want any special treatment,\u201d Caitlin Mills said. \u201cWe just want to make sure that all kids are free to enjoy this tradition.\u00a0 I mean, come on, almost everyone has a lemonade stand when they\u2019re growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caitlin and Abigail contend that kids should not be required to get a license to have a temporary cookie stand in their front yard. However, the city contended that the girls were really asking for a special permit and that they should have to apply for a home occupation license before the judge could even hear their case.\u00a0 The judge apparently agreed, dismissing the girls\u2019 petition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole point of the girls\u2019 case is that kids shouldn\u2019t have to get their government\u2019s permission for something so simple and harmless as a front-yard concession stand,\u201d remarked Jenifer Zeigler Roland, the Freedom Center\u2019s executive director. \u201cRefusing to hear their case unless they ask for a license kind of defeats the purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roland added that even\u00a0 if they wanted the license it would be futile for them to apply for it.\u00a0 “And remember \u2013 all this fuss is about whether kids can sell cookies in their own front yard!\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mills family plans to ask the judge to reconsider the dismissal of their lawsuit or, at a minimum, to explain her reasoning so they will have a clearer idea of how to proceed, Roland said in a press release. \u00a0 If the judge does not vacate the dismissal, the Freedom Center expects to appeal that decision, he added.<\/p>\n
Founded in November 2010 and headquartered in St. Louis, the Freedom Center of Missouri is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to research, litigation, and education in defense of individual liberty and constitutionally limited government.<\/p>\n
The Freedom Center provides its services pro bono \u2013 clients are never asked to pay and all of the Center\u2019s funding comes from donations made by private citizens and foundations.\u00a0 Mills v. City of Hazelwood is the Freedom Center\u2019s third case, and its first focusing primarily on the issue of property rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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