Jim’s case is IJ’s latest such effort and builds directly on our recent U.S. Supreme Court victory in Timbs v. Indiana. In Timbs, the Court explicitly applied the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause to state and local governments. Using this new legal ammunition, IJ and Jim have teamed up to protect the property rights of all Floridians and to send a clear message to other cities that abusive code enforcement is not only wrong—it’s unconstitutional.
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In addition to the “Excessive Fines Clause” there are also likely Due Process issues since the city didn’t issue him written (or any?) notice.
Hope he wins.
[[Labeling Jim a “repeat violator” because he’d once let his grass grow too long some four years earlier,]]
But ILLEGAL INVADERS can come here- break all kinds of SERIOUS laws, and the left protect them- but by golly, let grass grow a bit tall, and all heel breaks loose-
Get your priorities straight!
This illustrates the insatiable and immoral thirst for revenue and power that ALL government has.
All the buttinski fascists are not in Washington, DC. Got plenty of them in everyone’s home town.
Polk County Florida (it may be the City of Lakeland, I’m not positive, but trust me, it’s the same difference) hired workers to drive around and note any property that has any appearance of additions or alterations. Fences, extra rooms, out buildings, etc - anything that would have originally required a building permit.
These people then go back and research as to when these changes were made and see if they match up to a building permit being issued at some point in time. They apparently go back as far as records permit. When they find something that was done without a permit (even decades ago) the government then fines the property owner.
I can’t say if this is still going on as we escaped Flori-Duh in 2006. We could no longer take the 9 month summers.
This is an example of where the elected pro-2nd amendment, constitutional sheriff steps in and tells the fascist bureaucrats and town council that his detectives are about to start an investigation of embezzlement by bureaucrats and elected town officials.
The fine will vanish instantly.
I’m always amazed that a few government workers can terrorize an entire population without running into someone like me. Am I that unusual?