The quintessential American enterprise is the lemonade stand. During the summer months, sidewalks across America fill up with children at card tables, bringing out pitchers and posting signs that advertise a cold glass of lemonade for just 75 cents.
Some will remember the lemonade stand as the way they got to know their neighbors and earned the cash to go see a movie. Many children today, however, will remember the lemonade stand as their first run-in with the law.
The innocuous entrepreneurial spirit has been shut down in states across the U.S., including Colorado, where someone called the police last month on three boys selling lemonade. The brothers, who were trying to raise money for Compassion International, were told to leave because they didn’t have a permit, according to their mother.
The busybodies and bureaucrats suffered a setback in the Lone Star State, though. Gov. Greg Abbott on June 10 signed a law to allow children to run lemonade stands without getting flagged by the police. The law, which goes into effect in September, prevents cities and neighborhood associations from stopping children who sell nonalcoholic beverages on private property.
Action was needed in Texas after two girls, 7-year-old Zoey and 8-year-old Andria Green, were shut down by bureaucrats for not having a permit and violating state health guidelines.
Utah passed similar legislation two years ago, becoming one of a growing number of states to protect the right of children to embrace an entrepreneurial spirit. For children not lucky enough to live in Utah or Texas, Country Time Lemonade has started a legal fund, called “Legal-Ade,” to help. It will cover up to $300 in fees for children who incur fines or have to pay for lemonade stand permits.
The Green sisters’ mother, Sandi Green-Netherland, posted on Facebook that they are “overly excited” about Texas’ new law. “This is deeper than [lemonade],” she wrote. “This is [about] having the ability to [perform] a simple act, with your own children, on your property or public parks which you pay taxes on!”
After it goes into effect this fall, Green says she and her daughters will welcome the law by hosting a “celebration lemonade stand.”
