SOUTH PADRE ISLAND – Despite one justice opining that a city’s restrictions on food truck vendors “raises serious” legal questions, the Texas Supreme Court has denied the challengers’ petition for review.
South Padre Island banned mobile food vendors from serving beachgoers until 2016. When the city allowed food truck entrepreneurs in, local restaurant owners complained.
In response, the city council rewrote the ordinance and added two provisions, capping the number of food truck permits at 12 and requiring applicants to obtain the signature of a local restaurant owner.
Last year, the 13th Court of Appeals reversed a ruling denying the city of South Padre’s plea to the jurisdiction in a claim brought by several food truck vendors who argued the ordinance was unconstitutional.
The plaintiffs then filed a petition for review with the Texas Supreme Court, which denied the petition on Nov. 3, court records show.
Justice Evan Young concurred with the decision but offered an opinion to explain his decision, writing that the city’s ordinance on food truck vendors “raises serious and important legal questions.”
“Nothing suggests that petitioners made any effort to obtain a signature from a restaurateur on the Island,” the opinion states. “Perhaps they should not be required to do so; after all, their contention is that the requirement is wholly invalid. Yet if the real goal was to operate food trucks, and not just to obtain judicial precedents, one would expect a modicum of effort to comply with what might turn out to be a minimal burden…
“My reluctant conclusion is that these concerns do not deprive us of jurisdiction but help show why we would be imprudent to exercise it.”
Case background
Representing food truck vendors, the Institute for Justice sued the city, arguing the restrictions are unconstitutional and anticompetitive.
A district court struck down the city’s permit cap, court records show.
On appeal, the city argued that the city’s code is “reasonable and protects public health.”
Court records show the food truck vendors filed a response, asserting that they “simply want a fair opportunity to vend to customers on South Padre Island.”
The 13th Court concluded that the food truck vendors “did not present evidence to rebut the presumption that the ordinance is constitutional.”
Texas Supreme Court case No. 22-0499
Appeals case No. 13-20-00536-CV