A Wise Ruling To Resolve When Democracy Collides With Liberty

Here is an interesting story in which the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling of a lower court. That decision was that it is not the courts job to “balancing the interests between the pigeon club members and their neighbors”. The case involved the city of Chicago banning racing pigeons, a step I find extreme. Other cities have taken a more moderate route to resolve the same problem such as limiting the number or regulating the industry.

It is clear that the ordinance does conflict with the right of liberty under the Declaration of Independence. The damage caused by the pigeons was in public nuisance from the cooing and litter from the bird droppings, and loss feathers. That damage is less than the loss of liberty inflicted on pigeon owners by the city. Still the federal courts are not democratic and the The United States has chosen the democratic system as the best way to resolve what is best for the safety and happiness of the general public. It is the duty of the legislation to develop and test solutions to city problems, of which this is one. The pigeon owners can and should already have appealed to their fellow citizens for intercession by getting a petition together that calls for more moderate action on the part of the city legislative members.

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly who is subject to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals should pay attention to this ruling which conflicts with own his ruling on another case. The ruling which I wrote about earlier decided that selling violent video games to minors violates the right to speech of the game designers.