Next week, the Illinois Supreme Court will hear a Chicago food truck owner’s challenge to two aspects of the city’s restrictive vending law. Since 2012, Cupcakes for Courage owner Laura Pekarik and the Institute for Justice (IJ) have asked state courts to strike down the ban on parking within 200 feet of a brick-and-mortar restaurant and the mandatory GPS tracking of food trucks. The court will consider whether the city can use the power of government to explicitly favor one type of business over another. “Cities cannot pick winners and losers. That’s not a legitimate government interest,” said Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Robert Frommer, who will argue the case next week. “Chicago’s anti-food truck laws serve only one purpose: to protect restaurants from competition.” When Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed a new food truck ordinance over six years ago, food truck owners were optimistic. While containing some improvements, the final ordinance passed by aldermen had in it provisions to protect brick-and-mortar restaurants from competition. Some alderman explicitly claimed that the restrictions were intended to “protect” restaurants. The rule banning trucks from parking within 200 feet of a restaurant effectively barred trucks from much of the center of Chicago, keeping them away from customers.