Posted on 09/27/2021 9:49:19 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
150 years ago growing a garden could be a matter of life and death. No one would have ever possibly suggested that growing vegetables was not a constitutionally protected right. But, today the thought of a family growing some non-gmo vegetables is just too much of a risk to public safety.
Apparently the right to feed yourself and your family is indeed not a fundamental one, as a Florida attorney previously declared.
A longstanding battle between 17-year homeowners at the Village of Miami Shores, Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts, appears to have reached its sad conclusion. In 2014, the couple was advised by town officials after a re-zoning plan that they would have to dig up their front-yard edible garden or face fines of $50 per day for the newly created infraction. The couple subsequently sued based on a constitutional infringement upon their right to use their own private property as well as a violation of the equal protection clause.
The Institute for Justice is calling this move a huge slap in the face to all homeowner’s constitutional rights.
Now, according to the Institute for Justice which had been representing the couple, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal actually has agreed with the opposing attorney who stated: “There certainly is not [a] fundamental right to grow vegetables in your front yard.”
The Institute for Justice is rightly calling this “a major blow to property rights
UPDATE:
She (Hermine) reached out to Institute for Justice, a national advocacy group that fights for property rights, among other issues.
It took six years, but they won. An appeals court had ruled against Ricketts, but the Florida Legislature passed a bill protecting vegetable gardens, and last week Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law.
“After nearly six years of fighting … I will once again be able to legally plant vegetables in my front yard,” Ricketts said in a statement. “I’m grateful to the Legislature and the governor for standing up to protect my freedom to grow healthy food on my own property.”
She lamented that the fight even had to happen. “We had a beautiful, nutritious garden for many years before the Village went out of its way to ban it and then threatened us with ruinous fines,” she said.
The Institute for Justice is calling this move a huge slap in the face to all homeowner’s constitutional rights.
Now, according to the Institute for Justice which had been representing the couple, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal actually has agreed with the opposing attorney who stated: “There certainly is not [a] fundamental right to grow vegetables in your front yard.”
The Institute for Justice is rightly calling this “a major blow to property rights
UPDATE:
She (Hermine) reached out to Institute for Justice, a national advocacy group that fights for property rights, among other issues.
It took six years, but they won. An appeals court had ruled against Ricketts, but the Florida Legislature passed a bill protecting vegetable gardens, and last week Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law.
“After nearly six years of fighting … I will once again be able to legally plant vegetables in my front yard,” Ricketts said in a statement. “I’m grateful to the Legislature and the governor for standing up to protect my freedom to grow healthy food on my own property.”
She lamented that the fight even had to happen. “We had a beautiful, nutritious garden for many years before the Village went out of its way to ban it and then threatened us with ruinous fines,” she said
Local officials have wide-latitude to enact questionable policies. The right to grow vegetables in one’s front yard is not enshrined in the Constitution.
Considering they may be placing the vax in lettuce and other foods and also who knows what, every community better make sure they can grow their own. Buying seeds (prepper packaged) right now may be the way to go.
The Constitution does not enumerate all rights.
That’s what the courts said.
And then the Florida legislature decided that their discretion will no longer extend to prohibiting vegetable gardening anywhere on one’s own property, including the front yard.
“he current Florida governor signed the legislature on June 24, 2019, creating Florida Statute 604.71. The new ordinance became effective July 1, 2019.”
This story is over two years out of date.
A front yard garden.
Cosmetic issue - first thing I thought about.
No one wants to pay big money to live next door to a share cropper.
Local officials are why God gave us shotguns.
The right to be secure in your person and property is.
Unless what you are doing is directly having a negative impact on your neighbors you should be left in peace.
And I discount totally the whiny "ma property values" BS.
If you don't have enough to do to the point that you are passing laws as to what your neighbor is growing in their front lawn I suggest you find a hobby because you have WAY to much time on your hands.
I guess they forgot about Victory Gardens of WW-2.
See:
https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/crops_02.html
Bullshit. Read the 9th Amendment to the Constitution.
Go find a hobby Gladys.
So every zoning law in the US is unconstitutional? Even if someone wants to build a 20 story low-income project on the other side of your back fence?
You get it. Others on here don’t. They are saying they have no problem with their next door neighbor turning their front yard into a junkyard, thereby cutting their own property value in half. The Constitution guarantees it!!!
“ No one wants to pay big money to live next door to a share cropper.”
How true. We have enough problems with people raising chickens in our little suburb. I won’t be surprised if goats are next. There’s two pigeon/dove cotes in our block alone.
Do you have kids who might inherit your property some day? If so, don’t be so cavalier about turning your neighborhood into a dump because you have a right to.
I think the main thing is this is ex post facto.
She had a garden for years.
They changed the law to target her.
That’s repugnant.
I think there’s going to be a lot of front yard gardens next year and chickens in the back.
In my neighborhood, it’s single-family homes being turned into rooming houses with five cars and a beat-up RV on the front lawn.
Anybody who thinks roosters only crow at sunrise has never lived near chickens. We hear them 24/7 and they are down the hill below us. I wouldn't want to even imagine what it must be like living next door. But we never complain about it because the chickens were there before we were.
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