Restaurants Push Back on Berkeley Plan to Ban Gas
A restaurant industry group said the city is trying to push through a ban on gas appliances in violation of federal law, by mandating that all new buildings be 100% electric.
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Key West Wants to Ban People From Feeding Roaming Chickens
Feral chickens run free in Key West, just one of those things that keep the Southernmost City charmingly weird.
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A Law to Crow About: France Upholds Rural ‘Sensory Heritage’
From crowing roosters to the whiff of barnyard animals, the “sensory heritage” of France’s countryside will now be protected by law from attempts to stifle the everyday aspects of rural life from newcomers looking for peace and quiet.
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High Court Turns Away Challenge to Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones
The Supreme Court refused Monday to take up anti-abortion activists’ challenge to a Pittsburgh ordinance creating protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics, but a conservative justice said the court should take up the issue when a more developed case comes before it.
Read moreCovid-19 Orders
A Texas court upheld the city of Austin and Travis County’s orders banning indoor and outdoor dining over New Year’s weekend between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who challenged the orders, immediately appealed to the state’s Court of Appeals for the Third Judicial District.
Read moreRent Ordinance
The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a suit challenging regulations relating to San Jose’s apartment rent ordinance that require landlords to provide information about rent stabilized units and condition their ability to increase rents on the disclosure of that information.
Read moreBillboard Fight
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a suit brought by Citizens for Free Speech challenging Alameda County’s ordinance prohibiting the erection of billboards on a man’s private property. The county provided the man with adequate procedural protections at the abatement hearing, so there is no due process violation.
Read moreMarijuana Growers
A federal court in California ruled against medical marijuana growers who claimed Shasta County violated their rights when it enacted a county ordinance banning the outdoor cultivation of marijuana. There is no “fundamental right to collectively cultivate marijuana,” the court ruled.
Read moreGun Policies
The West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence’s action challenging a state law that prohibits property owners from banning firearms in parking lot areas can continue, a federal court in the state ruled.
Read moreTrigger Activators
An appeals court in Ohio upheld a ruling in favor of gun rights groups that found Cincinnati’s ban on firearm “trigger activators,” such as bump stocks, unconstitutional. The city’s ordinance is an “invalid exercise of home-rule authority.”
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Report Names and Shames Countries Cozy With Big Tobacco
The global tobacco industry has aggressively lobbied governments during the Covid-19 pandemic to expand markets and blunt measures designed to curb their business, a report from watchdog groups aligned with the World Health Organization claimed on Tuesday.
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France Alarms Rights Defenders With Proposed Ban on Police Images
France’s lower house of parliament is opening debate Tuesday on a security bill that would permit the imprisonment of people who publish images of police officers with intent to cause them harm.
Read moreTobacco Ordinance
A federal court in Pennsylvania granted a group of cigar manufacturers and distributors’ request for a preliminary injunction to prevent Philadelphia from enforcing an ordinance that prohibits the sale of tobacco products flavors or aromas other than the flavor or aroma of tobacco.
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Landlords Press Ninth Circuit to End Oakland Tenant Relocation Payments
Three Ninth Circuit judges heard arguments Tuesday over the constitutionality of an Oakland ordinance requiring landlords to pay relocation costs for tenants displaced by evictions when property owners move back in.
Read moreGun Storage
An appeals court in Washington revived a challenge to a Seattle ordinance that regulates the storage of firearms, requiring them to be secured in a locked container. The plaintiffs, two gun owners and two gun rights groups, can bring their challenge under the Uniform Declaratory Judgment Act.
Read moreRent Control
The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a mobile home park’s suit against the city of El Monte over its rent control ordinance. The mobile home park argued the ordinance constitutes an unlawful taking but six of its claims are precluded as they were dismissed in state court.
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Virginians Divided on New Gun-Control Measures
Months after Virginia lawmakers passed a handful of new gun-control laws, many are finally being enforced and their enactment has generated a mix of reactions from people across the state.
Read moreFlavored Tobacco
A federal court in Minnesota dismissed a group of tobacco companies’ suit against the city of Edina relating to a recently adopted ordinance banning the sale of flavored tobacco products.
Read moreRide-Sharing
The Arizona Supreme Court upheld Phoenix’s ordinance imposing trip fees on commercial ground transportation providers like Uber and Lyft who take passengers to and from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, finding the ordinance is constitutional because paying fees to use airport property for commercial purposes is not transaction-based.
Read morePhotography and Harassment
A resident of Bloomington, Minnesota, who describes herself as a “point person for delivering neighborhood concerns” to officials lost her suit challenging the city’s child photography ordinance and the state’s harassment statute in federal court. The woman was interviewed by police after she was reported for photographing children — who attend a charter school within an Islamic center — during their recess in a public park.
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