Judge Frank Shepherd on Palm and Pine: Property Rights, Freedom, and Florida's Zoning Wars
Oct 20, 2026
Our founder and president, Judge Frank Shepherd, sat down with Steve and Doug Barlow on the Palm and Pine Podcast for a conversation about what it means to be a free citizen in Florida, and why that freedom starts with the land under your feet.
The episode, The Sovereign Citizen: Judge Frank Shepherd on Property Rights, Freedom, and Florida's Zoning Wars, went live on October 20, 2026.
Palm and Pine is hosted by two seventh-generation Florida brothers from Plant City who cover Florida history, natural history and current events from an Old Florida perspective. Their audience knows what open land, cattle country and family homesteads mean to this state. That made it a natural place for a conversation about who gets to decide what Floridians can build on their own property.
Property is where liberty starts
Judge Shepherd walked the hosts through the idea of the sovereign individual: a citizen whose personal rights come first, and whose government exists to protect them. At the center of that idea is private property.
His argument is simple: Property is the foundation of every other freedom. A government that can take your land, or regulate it until it is useless, holds the power to take everything else.
Our state's history is one of families who built their lives on land they worked themselves. The question Judge Shepherd raised is whether the next generation will still be allowed to do the same.
Florida's zoning wars, from the inside
Judge Shepherd shared real cases he has been part of, some of them still being fought, in which Florida property owners have been blocked from building their own homes.
The pattern is familiar to anyone who has tried to build here. Zoning and land-use rules pile requirement on requirement until the cost of construction climbs out of reach. No one formally takes the land. The owner simply can't afford to use it.
As the episode puts it, this is a fight to keep Florida buildable. When local rules price ordinary families out of building a house on land they already own, the right to own property starts losing its value.
Why this is the Foundation's fight
Judge Shepherd brings more than 50 years in the law to this work. He served on Florida's Third District Court of Appeal from 2003 to 2017, rising to Chief Judge and writing more than 500 signed opinions. Before that, he led the Florida office of Pacific Legal Foundation, and earlier served in EPA enforcement under President Reagan.
He founded the Florida Legal Foundation to put that experience to work for Floridians. Private property is one of our core areas. We challenge local government infringement on the right to own, use and dispose of property, including through stronger use of Florida's Bert J. Harris, Jr. Private Property Rights Protection Act.
Listen, and get involved
The full conversation is worth your time, whether you own land, hope to build on it someday, or simply care about what kind of Florida the next generation inherits.
• Listen: The Sovereign Citizen on Palm and Pine, also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
• Facing a zoning or land-use fight? Submit your case to the Florida Legal Foundation
• Support the work: Donate to help us defend Floridians' property rights in court
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