Discount Inn v. City of Chicago

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-City’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s constitutional challenge to two of defendant’s ordinances that required plaintiff to cut/control weeds of certain height on its property and to fence its open lots with non-combustible screen fence. Ct. rejected plaintiff’s claim that both ordinances, with their $600 to $1,200 and $300 to $600 daily fines, violated 8th Amendment excessive fines clause, where: (1) maximum fine of $600 per day for fence violation served important public purposes of discouraging drug sales and preventing injuries from wild life; and (2) maximum fine of $1,200 for weed control violation supported defendant’s valid ecological interests. Ct. also rejected plaintiff’s claim that weed control ordinance improperly violated its interest in free expression/free speech activity under 1st Amendment, since allowing weeds to grow tall cannot, by itself, be regarded as works of art, and plaintiffs otherwise failed to show that it added anything to weeds growing on its property. Also, fact that ordinances lacked statute of limitations clause did not render them unconstitutional.