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Weed Laws Article on Landscaping (John Marshall Law Review) Page 20 of 27 may be as much a trap for the innocent as the ancient laws of Caligula."' 54 Weed laws can clearly be such a trap. In Newark V. Garfield Development Corp.,155 one court ad- dressed the issue directly. In that case, the court struck down an ordinance that stated "all areas shall be kept free from weeds or plant growth which are noxious or detrimental to public health and welfare or a public nuisance defined in article 2." Article 2 defined public nuisance as "any premises which are unsanitary, or littered with rubbish or garbage, or which has an uncontrolled growth of weeds." The court held: That which appears to be contained without exception in all weed control legislation but which is lacking in the ordinance in question is the definition of the particular vegetation which is sought to be controlled or a mechanism by which the particular vegetation is designated to be noxious and therefore subject to government control 156 The court summarized the reason for the ruling as follows: [I]t seems clear to this court to be utterly repugnant to our system of law to punish a person for an act, the criminality of which depends not on any standard erected by the law which could be known to the defendant in advance, but one erected by a judge or jury after the trial has been completed.157 Even if weed ordinances are not void on their face, they can often be vague -as- applied to those who engage in natural landscaping. Across the nation, all levels of governments are actively pursuing natural landscaping.15• The most remarkable, and perhaps ironic, example of a government natural landscaping is Chicago's prairie on the southside at the David R. Lee Animal Control Center. The city planted hundreds of pounds of wildflower, native grass and legumes seeds at the site. Marie Wojciechowski, who is being prosecuted by Chicago for violating its weed ordinance, gathered seeds from the city's prairie garden and grew plants from those seeds on her property.159 She even received a letter from a city landscape architect asking her to call if she needed any further assistance or information about the prairie.16° Ms. Wojciechowski now defends herself in a criminal case brought by the city for growing the offspring of the city's own plants. Without an exact definition of what type of vegetation is prohibited, weed laws violate due process because they allow law enforcement officials and judges to rely on their own notions of what is right and what is wrong.161 The primary thrust of the void - for - vagueness doctrine is: The requirement that a legislature must establish guidelines to govern law enforcement.... Where a legislature fails to provide such minimal guidelines, a criminal statute may permit a standardless sweep that allows policemen, prosecutors and juries to pursue their personal predilections.162 Weed laws create such a result. Absent guidelines within the text of the weed law itself as to what plant species are prohibited, an enforcement officer is free to decide, strictly on his own, whether the plant complained of in a given situation is http: / /www.epa.gov /glnpo /greenacres /weedlaws /JMLR.html 2/22/01