The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Sacramento County chapter said this week it strongly supports the recent California Supreme Court decision determining that the Westfield Galleria Mall’s rules restricting speech among strangers are a violation of free speech, and thus, unconstitutional.
Shopping centers can and should adopt written “reasonable” rules and regulations for free speech activity, said Reiger. The standard for what is a “reasonable” shopping center rule is the same as the standard for the government regulating speech in a public forum-the rule must be content-neutral and narrowly tailored to leave open alternative avenues of communication.
“Clearly, the mall overreached its authority to restrict speech to only matters related to the mall. It was nonsensical to, in effect, tell people they can’t even talk about the weather if it doesn’t relate to the mall.”
- Debra Reiger, chair of Sacramento ACLU Board of Directors.
Reiger pointed out that the court decision upholds two important rights the ACLU consistently fights to support: the right to speak freely in public spaces, including shopping malls, and the right to speak publicly about religious beliefs, including Christianity.
However, said Reiger, Westfield Galleria rules prohibiting all speech between strangers on matters unrelated to the mall were neither content neutral nor narrowly tailored. These rules were not content neutral because they favored speech in the interest of the Galleria and disfavored all other speech. In addition, whatever interests the Galleria had in favoring that speech, the rules were not narrowly tailored to meet those interests.
The case came about when a youth pastor talked to others at the mall about his faith. Security officers order him to leave, and later arrested him. All charges were dismissed by the district attorney. He sued, claiming his civil rights were violated. The Superior Court ruled against the pastor, but an appellate court agreed his rights were violated. The state Supreme Court refused to overturn the Appellate Court.
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