Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins - Campbell, CA - Infamous Crime Scenes on Waymarking.com

The case center around a bunch of students who were getting signatures for a petition on the grounds of the shopping center. A security guard asked them to leave, saying that the activity violated the center's rules. The student followed order and later sued the shopping center in California state court for violating their First Amendment rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court in their ruling in 1980 found that the students had:

" 1. Under the California Constitution, individuals may peacefully exercise their right to free speech in parts of private shopping centers regularly held open to the public, subject to reasonable regulations adopted by the shopping centers

2 Under the U.S. Constitution, states can provide their citizens with broader rights in their constitutions than under the federal Constitution, so long as those rights do not infringe on any federal constitutional rights

This holding was possible because California's constitution contains an affirmative right of free speech which has been liberally construed by the Supreme Court of California, while the federal constitution's First Amendment contains only a negative command to Congress to not abridge the freedom of speech. The Supreme Court rejected the shopping center's argument that California's free speech right amounted to a "taking" of the shopping center under federal constitutional law.

The vote to uphold the California decision was unanimous, although three justices disagreed with part of the reasoning in Justice William Rehnquist's opinion for the majority. Justices Thurgood Marshall, Byron White, and Harry Blackmun filed separate concurring opinions.

Because of the Pruneyard case, people who visit shopping centers in California may regularly encounter people seeking money or attention for various causes, including charitable solicitations, qualifying petitions for amendments to the state constitution, voter registration drives, and sometimes a beggar. In turn, many shopping centers have posted signs to explain that they do not endorse the views of people exercising their right to free speech, and that if patrons do not give them money, the speakers will go away." Source: Wikipedia

Date of crime: 01/01/1979 Public access allowed: yes Fee required: no Web site: [Web Link]

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