Oh, I don’t doubt that some precedent exists in Arizona for this kind of authoritarianism. My point is that the lawyer who goes into court and argues that passers-by in Mesa will suffer some harm if the shop owner puts up another sign ought to be laughed out of court — literally — and his case dismissed with prejudice.
Judges should stop meekly saying that they’ll defer to the wisdom of the legislature when it comes to matters of property rights and economic liberties. As Randy Barnett argues in Restoring the Lost Constitution, the presumption should lie in favor of the freedom to peacefully act rather than with the whims of elected officials.
