Are limit laws unconstitutional?
Even when dog owners win, they can lose. A couple from Cary, North Carolina, fought the city s long-standing two dog limit and won; the limit was erased from the books in 2001 after the county attorney refused to prosecute the case on the grounds that the law was probably unconstitutional.2 However, the family is under fire from its subdivision board for violating pet restrictions in the community covenants. A Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court declared pet limits unconstitutional if passed without a clear connection to community health and safety.3 The court concluded: What is not an infringement upon public safety and is not a nuisance cannot be made one by legislative fiat and then prohibited. Even legitimate legislative goals cannot be pursued by means which stifle fundamental personal liberty when the goals can otherwise be more reasonably achieved. Along with knee-jerk reactions to problems more easily solved by consistent enforcement of nuisance laws, elected officials sometimes pa
