By the way, the same principle explains why New York streets are filled with unlicensed vendors of books, art, etc. The city has a law requiring a license of anyone selling anything in the street, and naturally that would apply to these dealers too. However following the Civil War it made one exception: for wounded veterans. They are allowed to sell anything in the street and need no license. That seems very reasonable and limited, but once the city makes this one exception it must make the same exception for vendors of all constitutionally protected goods, such as printed matter, videos, art, etc. This also explains the legality of the arba-minim markets that crop up on the streets in the week before Sukkos. The city could get rid of all of these if it were to revoke the veterans’ exception, but it won’t do that.
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