Many cities have bad food truck laws. But Cranston goes above and beyond in creating a hostile food truck environment. In June of 2013, Cranston passed a 1,000 foot proximity restriction for food trucks, the largest enforced proximity restriction in the county!

The Institute for Justice responded by sending a letter to Mayor Allan Fung’s office, encouraging him to veto the City Council’s bill, but instead of signing or vetoing the bill, he simply let it sit on his table—meaning it automatically went into effect after 10 days.

The city decided to revisit the issue of their constitutional defect. The result, after seven months of work, was to add to the 1,000 foot ban a mandatory GPS attachment for all food trucks. In approving this most recent change, the city managed to go from violating the 14th Amendment to violating the 14th and 4th Amendments at the same time.

Read more about Rhode Island food trucks on IJ’s Liberty in Action blog