CLEWISTON — On Tuesday, Nov. 3, the Institute for Justice (IJ) sent a letter to officials in Clewiston, Florida, claiming that the city’s food truck ordinance violates the Florida Constitution.

Under Ordinance 2024-14, food trucks in Clewiston may operate only on Mondays and Tuesdays and must stay at least 200 feet away from any open restaurant unless that restaurant gives written permission.

Those two days are not a coincidence. Mondays and Tuesdays are when most brick-and-mortar restaurants in Clewiston are closed, meaning the ordinance permits food trucks only when they are unlikely to compete with established businesses. The 200-foot buffer zone fulfills a similar protectionist function, giving existing restaurants veto power over whether a competitor can set up nearby.

“I can only open on Mondays and Tuesdays, and anybody who’s been in the food business knows those are the two slowest days of the week,” said Leonard Moore, owner of Moore’s Soul Food. “The city’s telling me I can only sell food on the days nobody’s buying it.”

“It’s a protectionist racket written into city code,” said IJ Attorney Katrin Marquez, author of the letter. “But Florida courts have been clear that the government cannot subordinate one group of citizens’ right to earn a living in order to protect another group from competition.”

In 2018, IJ sued the city of Fort Pierce, Florida, over an ordinance banning food trucks within 500 feet of any restaurant or business that sells food. A Florida circuit court subsequently enjoined the ban as likely unconstitutional because “protectionism, by itself, is not a valid exercise of police power,” and Fort Pierce signed a consent decree conceding the law was illegal.

IJ also worked with the Florida Legislature to pass Florida Statute § 509.102, which shields food trucks from unreasonable local regulation. More recently, Miami Gardens changed course after IJ flagged constitutional and statutory defects in their ordinances.

When IJ researchers examined 12 years of county-level census data, they found that as food trucks were introduced to communities, the restaurant industry continued to grow.

“Far from harming the restaurant industry, food trucks can complement it,” the study concluded. “Growth in the number of food trucks goes hand in hand with growth in the number of restaurants.” This is because food trucks attract more customers into an area, thereby increasing business for everyone—including restaurants.

IJ has offered to work with Clewiston officials on an ordinance that complies with state law while expanding dining options and economic opportunity in the city and has made its model food truck legislation available to the commission.