Tarpon Springs and Mattituck: Hotbeds of Abusive Governmental Overreach!

What do Tarpon Springs, Florida and Mattituck, New York have in common? Petty, abusive local politicians passing illegal, unconstitutional laws designed to harm individual business owners trying to feed their families. 

In Tarpon Springs, local entrepreneurs Elijah and Ashley Durham opened up a food truck called SOL Burger to serve tasty gourmet burgers to a highly willing set of customers. They had an agreement to park on the private premises of a local brewery, and their business flourished.

Brick and mortar restauranteurs in Tarpon Springs, rather than providing better service or better food, instead lobbied the Tarpon Springs city government, who then passed a law banning food trucks in the city limits. While this is appalling and abusive, what makes it all the more insane is that Florida's State Legislature just recently passed an economic liberty law, in part specifically prohibiting local governments from banning food trucks! So not only are the members of the Tarpon City Council mean-spirited and abusive in attacking the livelihood of a Tarpon Springs family, they decided to pass a law which their own attorneys should have advised them is illegal under the Florida State Constitution!

In Mattituck, Long Island, the Brinkmann family who already operate three successful hardware stores, bought a vacant lot which they had been eyeing for a decade, in order to build a fourth hardware store under their brand name. For reasons unclear, the politicians in this small hamlet have gone to war against the Brinkmanns, first trying to break the property sale, then passing a ridiculous construction moratorium law which only would apply to them, then when court cases went against the town for this insane abuse of power, trying to claim the vacant lot suddenly had to become a local park. 

In both cases, the Institute for Justice (https://www.ij.org) is representing the abused Americans who erroneously thought they live in a free country where this kind of petty, arbitrary governmental abuse cannot happen. Adam Griffin joins us to explain these cases as well as the many other areas in which the IJ is attacking an abusive government at all levels, and doing so on the behalf of us all. They are true legal heroes and when you're done listening, immediately log onto IJ.org to donate in support of their work. Who knows? Someday the government may be coming for you.