The California Supreme Court on Dec. 24 ruled in a close 4–3 decision that shopping centers are now fair grounds for free speech.

The case revolved around union protesters who handed out leaflets in front of a Robinsons-May store (now Macy’s) at the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego. The protesters were targeting the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper, charging it with unfair treatment of its union workers. It was urging boycotts of Robinsons-May because the store was a major advertiser in the paper. The mall’s management kicked the picketers off the property because they did not have a permit to stage a protest.

The protesters appealed to the National Labor Relations Board, which argued they didn’t need a permit to practice free speech. The case reached a federal appeals court and finally the state Supreme Court.

In the ruling, the court cited a similar 1979 case in which the court ruled in a landmark decision that free speech can extend to private property, even though the U.S. Supreme Court does not allow it.

In the Dec. 24 ruling for the majority, Justice Carlos Moreno wrote that “the mall’s purpose to maximize the profits of its merchants is not compelling compared to the union’s right to free expression.”

Writing for the minority, Justice Ming W. Chin said that “urging a boycott of those businesses contradicts the very purpose of the shopping center’s existence. It is wrong to compel a private property owner to allow an activity that contravenes the property’s purpose.”

—Robert McAllister