Legal News

L.A. Judge Sides With Taco Lovers; Strikes ?Naked Restraint of Trade?

By Jennifer Forsyth

A cook jumps into a taco truck on Olympic Blvd Wednesday Aug. 27, 2008 in East Los Angeles. (AP/Los Angeles Times, Alex Gallardo)

When we were hungry and destitute Columbia University students, a taco van parked a little ways from the Morningside Heights campus offered a superb change of pace from the routine Raman noodles. Problem was, the van wasn’t always there, fleeing occasionally for what we presumed were annoying NYC rules about how long it could park in one spot. We’d often schlep 20 blocks in the cold only to come up empty.

With those fond memories in mind, we’re pleased to see the taco van owners score a legal victory in L.A. County Superior Court. Yesterday, Judge Dennis Aichroth overturned a controversial ordinance passed in April that made it a misdemeanor to park a taco truck in one spot for more than an hour in some parts of the county. Here’s the L.A. Times story.

Calling the ordinance vague and therefore unconstitutional, Judge Aichroth said county supervisors had not properly established that it was written in the interest of public safety.

“Since there is no rational basis for requiring a catering truck to be moved half a mile every 60 minutes (or every 30 minutes), this attempt to restrict the operation of the catering trucks from the location at which they would prefer to be parked is a pretext for creating a `naked restraint of trade’ and, as such, must be invalid,” Judge Aichroth writes.

The ruling doesn’t say whether the judge eats tacos. But Angelenos sure do. The outcry over the ordinance included a petition that collected more than 9,000 signatures. It was posted on the Internet by two LA-area taco lovers at www.saveourtacotrucks.org, the LAT reported. Philip C. Greenwald, an attorney in Encino, represented the plaintiff, Margarita Garcia.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 28, 2008 (boomark / email).