Here is an interesting news story
Westfield, one of the country’s largest mall operators made a rule that “You may not approach a person you don’t know to chat, unless it is about the mall or its tenants”. The 3rd district court of appeals has ruled that policy is in violation of the California’s Free Speech protections.
The case was brought following the “Citizen’s arrest” of a 27 year old pastor. Westfield says they plan to appeal.
This is an interesting case – Westfield operates two of the major malls in this area in CT, and their list of “rules” as you walk in the door is staggeringly long. You may not take pictures, you may not follow people, you may not stand in groups and talk (the mall has “teenager” “issues”)
The general rule about malls is that they are private property, and they can pretty much make up any rules they want. If you don’t like the rules, don’t enter and shop somewhere else. Of course, Federal anti-discrimination laws do apply since it is a business establishement offering services to the general public.
I wonder if the NewsMax story is “fair and balanced”. On the surface, this ruling sounds improbable.
So let’s do some fact checking with local media
Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/14/2958400/roseville-gallerias-rules-deny.html
Adds in detail that Mall has a 4 day application process in the event you want your conversations to be “authorized”, but even then only between two people.
The details that triggered the case was a Christian pastor was talking to 3 women about his faith when the employee of a store called mall security (the 3 women did not have a problem with his conduct). When he refused to stop talking, mall security called the police and had him arrested. All the charges were immediately dropped.
He sued Westfield, the security firm and the police. One of Westfield’s reason for this rule against unregulated communications is it might violate fire codes. In the deposition, the General Manager of the mall was given the example of…. you see someone wearing a sporting team’s clothing and engage them in a conversation about sports. In order to do that, you need to go to the office and make a written application explaining why you want to have that conversation (and wait 4 days, of course)….
The California law involved was a the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which was passed in California in 1959 (5 years before the Federal Law), prohibiting retail establishments from discrimination.
(As a digression, it’s interesting that since 1983, violations of the ADA because violations of the state law – contrast that with SR1070)
So what do we think about this?
Here is the text of the court decision:
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/C059985.PDF