Texas Passes Law Legalizing Kids' Lemonade Stands

AUSTIN, TX — In an age of corrosive politics and toxic ideological discourse, lawmakers in Texas passed a law this week that everyone can get around: The legalization of kids' lemonade stands.

Surely you've read or seen stories of overzealous law enforcement officials shutting down lemonade stands children sometimes set up to raise funds for various causes. Something about not having a license or the right permit seems to be the common thread with such police busts.

But as of Monday in Texas, youthful lemonade stand operators can step out of the shadows without looking behind their collective shoulder. Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill prohibiting cities and neighborhood associations from enacting rules blocking or regulating children selling non-alcoholic drinks (such as lemonade) on private property.

A groundswell of support for the measure dates to 2015 when police in the East Texas town of Overton unceremoniously shut down a lemonade stand run by two young siblings trying to earn money to buy a Father's Day present, the Texas Tribune reported.

The bill, authored by state Rep. Matt Krause, a Fort Worth Republican, passed unanimously in both chambers of the Texas Legislature. Abbott signed the bill in a video posted on Twitter, calling the measure a common sense law.

So if the world gives you lemon, kids of Texas, go on ahead and make lemonade with wild abandon. The cops won't put the squeeze on you for it.