This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, April 7, 2011 - It was almost by accident that we started selling Girl Scout cookies in front of our house six years ago. As our mom was counting boxes outside of our house, a few cars saw her and stopped to ask if they could buy some. Sensing a good idea, we set up a table and started sitting out for a few hours each night between school and sunset -- and we quickly became the top cookie sellers in our troop. We never imagined that our cookie booth would get us in trouble with our local government! After all, selling Girl Scout cookies is just like having a lemonade stand -- it's something that generations of kids like us have always done in America. And who doesn't love cookies?
Unfortunately, as many people have now heard, the City of Hazelwood has said that it is against the law for us to have our cookie stand unless we first get permits from the city. When we heard this, our mom actually tried to get such a permit, but the city denied her request. We have been told that if we set up our cookie stand next year, the city will shut it down again. So now we face a choice: do we give up the cookie stand that has become our annual tradition, or do we take a stand for something that we believe in. With the support of our parents, we have decided to take a stand.
Our parents and our schools taught us that when the Founders wrote the Constitution they wanted to make sure that people were free to buy property and use it to make a better life for themselves and their families, so long as their use did not hurt anyone else. But as we have now seen up close, people can no longer assume that they have a right to use their property even for something so simple and harmless as a cookie stand. In fact, cities seem to presume that owners can do very little with their property unless they first get permission from one city official or another. We think this cannot be right, and today we are asking a court to review Hazelwood's law to make sure it is consistent with our constitutional freedoms.
We hope that people understand that we do not mean to be disrespectful to the elected officials at the City of Hazelwood. We know that they are well-intentioned people and they work very hard to make sure that our community is a nice place to live. But even good city officials make mistakes and sometimes overstep the Constitution's limits. When that happens, we know that it is the courts' job to clarify those limits and to make sure the Constitution is being obeyed. That is what we are asking the courts to do in our case.
We hope that when all is said and done, Missouri's young people will not have to think twice before setting up a front yard stand to sell lemonade or cookies.
Caitlin Mills, 16, and Abigail Mills, 14, are in Girl Scout Troop 570 and live in Hazelwood. They wrote this op-ed with the assistance of their mother, Carolyn Mills, and Dave Roland of the Freedom Center of Missouri. The Freedom Center (www.mofreedom.org) will be litigating the case without fees.