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Food trucks are a favorite cause of many urban progressives. But after their latest setback in Chicago today, it may be worth remembering that the legal fight has been backed by some of the most powerful right-wing forces in the country. Lemme explain /1 wbez.org/shows/wbez-new…
The 7-year legal fight against Chicago's food truck ordinance has been funded by a group with the vague name of Institute for Justice. Its lawyer have represented the plaintiffs in the Chicago case free of charge /2
What is the Institute for Justice? Well, I looked at who is funding them in the 2016 story for the @Suntimes. Among the funders for the IJ were the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers /3 chicago.suntimes.com/2016/9/20/1835…
Here is a nice primer on the Koch brothers from our colleagues at @BBCWorld /4 bbc.com/news/world-us-…
Why do the Koch brothers care about food trucks? All I can tell you is that the Koch-funded Institute for Justice says they are focused on enhancing "economic liberty" as well as "educational choice" and other "free market issues" /4 ij.org/issues/economi…
A bit more now on the Koch brothers ... In Chicago, they've exercised their, um, economic liberty in recent years by forming "mountain-high piles" of am industrial by-product called pet coke on the Southeast Side /5 chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archiv… h/t @RobinAmer @Chicago_Reader
But to the food truck owners - who say they're getting screwed out of business by a City Hall that favors restaurants - their attitude toward the Koch-funded free legal help seems to be: "Hey, they may be rancid butter but they're on our side of the bread" /6
I expect also to see a furious response to this latest food truck setback from a locally based right-wing group: the Illinois Policy Institute. Close observers of state gov't will remember them as big allies of GOP Gov. Rauner - until they weren't ... /7 chicago.suntimes.com/2018/2/15/1833…
This cartoon with Rahm in a tutu gives you a taste of the Illinois Policy Institute's "coverage" of the food truck issue in Chicago /8 illinoispolicy.org/daily-comics/r…
So what's next? The Institute for Justice has suggested today they may take this to the US Supreme Court. They have complained the food trucks are victims of Chicago politics. #SCOTUS' political bent may be more to their liking /9 npr.org/2018/10/06/654…
