National Street Vending Initiative
The Institute for Justice’s Fight to Legalize Street Vending
Through its National Street Vending Initiative, the Institute for Justice challenges anti-competitive laws that harm street vendors by unconstitutionally restricting their right to earn an honest living. The initiative helps vendors defeat such restrictions by bringing lawsuits in state and federal courts, equipping vendors to fight these restrictions through activism, and educating the public about the social and economic importance of street vending.
In 2016, we launched a new case challenging Baltimore’s strict regulations on food trucks. In 2021, we launched a new case challenging a Florida town’s ban on all food trucks from the downtown area except for those operated by brick-and-mortar restaurants.
STREET VENDORS: Does your city have laws that seem designed to keep you from competing with other businesses? Do these laws make it difficult—or even impossible—for you to run your business? If so, we can help. Please e-mail us at activism@ij.org.
Vending Research
Economic Liberty | Vending
Street Vending in the United States: A Unique Dataset from a Survey of Street Vendors in America’s Largest Cities
The data described in this article come from an original survey of street vendors in the 50 largest cities in the United States. One of the most persistent, although little understood, features of the urban…
Economic Liberty | Vending
A Golden Opportunity for the Golden State
California’s sidewalk vendors face a patchwork of arbitrary and anticompetitive rules that make it difficult—or even impossible—to ply their chosen trade and share in the prosperity of the United States’ largest economy. Now the California…