Lemonade Stands Now 100% Legal In Texas

Texas Governor Greg Abbott had a busy Monday. He signed two food-related bills into law, one "saving" Chick-fil-A and the other shielding kids selling lemonade from police crackdowns. Whether either party truly needed legal protections is unclear.

Per CNN, the lemonade-stand bill was sponsored by Fort Worth-based Republican lawmaker Matt Krause, who said it was necessary after a 2015 incident in which police shut down two girls' lemonade stand in Overton, Texas, telling them they didn't have a permit. The siblings were trying to raise $105 to take their dad to a water park for Father's Day.

It's now legal for kids to sell lemonade at stands.

We had to pass a law because police shut down a kid's lemonade stand.

Thanks to ⁦@RepMattKrause⁩. #txlege #LEMONADE pic.twitter.com/xwfCob2nvV

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 11, 2019

House Bill 234 states in part that "Notwithstanding any other law, a municipality, county, or other local public health authority may not adopt or enforce an ordinance, order, or rule that prohibits or regulates, including by requiring a license, permit, or fee, the occasional sale of lemonade or other nonalcoholic beverages from a stand on private property by an individual younger than 18 years of age."

How one defines "occasional sale" is less than crystal clear, but otherwise, it's hard to find fault with this common-sense law. If only we could say the same for legislation generally.