An Act To Guarantee Free Speech in Privately Owned Public Gathering Places
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 1540
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: HINCK, MILLS, ADAMS, BERRY, BRAUTIGAM, CRA VEN, ROTUNDO
Amends: 5 MRSA §4681, 5 MRSA §4684-C

Legislative Document 
No. 1540 
H.P.1065 
House of Representatives, March 20, 2007 
An Act To Guarantee Free Speech in Privately Owned Public 
Gathering Places 
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Representative HINCK of Portland. 
Cosponsored by Senator MILLS of Somerset and 
'7r/~ /J7.7iI~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Representatives: ADAMS of Portland, BERRY of Bowdoinham, BRAUTIGAM of Falmouth, 
CRA VEN of Lewiston, Senator: ROTUNDO of Androscoggin. 
Printed on recycled paper 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 5 MRSA §4681, sub-§l, as enacted by PL 2001, c. 50, §1, is amended to 
read: 
1. Interference with rights; action by Attorney General. Whenever any person, 
whether or not acting under color of law, intentionally interferes or attempts to 
intentionally interfere by physical force or violence against a person, damage or 
destruction of property or trespass on property or by the threat of physical force or 
violence against a person, damage or destruction of property or trespass on property with 
the exercise or enjoyment by any other person of rights secured by the United States 
Constitution or the laws of the United States or of rights secured by the Constitution of 
Maine or laws of the State or violates section 4684-B or 4684-C, the Attorney General 
may bring a civil action for injunctive or other appropriate equitable relief in order to 
protect the peaceable exercise or enjoyment of the rights secured. 
Sec. 2. 5 MRS A §4682, sub-§l-A, as reallocated by RR 2001, c. 1, § 11, IS 
amended to read: 
I-A. Interference with rights; private actions. Whenever any person, whether or 
not acting under color of law, intentionally interferes or attempts to intentionally interfere 
by physical force or violence against a person, damage or destruction of property or 
trespass on property or by the threat of physical force or violence against a person, 
damage or destruction of property or trespass on property with the exercise or enjoyment 
by any other person of rights secured by the United States Constitution or the laws of the 
United States or of rights secured by the Constitution of Maine or laws of the State or 
violates section 4684-B or 4684-C, the person whose exercise or enjoyment of these 
rights has been interfered with, or attempted to be interfered with, may institute and 
.~ .• prosecute in that person's own name and on that..person's own behalf a civil action for 
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legal or equitable relief. 
' 
Sec. 3. 5 MRSA §4684-C is enacted to read: 
§4684-C. 
Exercise of the rights of free speech and free expression and the right to 
petition in public gathering places 
1. 
Definitions. As used in this section, the following terms have the following 
meanings. 
A. 
"Common area" means that part of a shopping center or shopping mall that 
consists of entrances, exits, passageways, sidewalks, malls, concourses and parking 
lots that provide access to or that connect the establishments of the shopping center or 
shopping mall and that do not constitute part of the gross leasable area of the 
shopping center or shopping mall. 
B. 
"Establishment" means a store, bank, restaurant, theater, arcade or other similar 
type of facility. 
C. 
"Gross leasable area" means the total square foot area of all establishments of a 
shopping center or shopping mall leased or offered for lease, regardless of whether 
I 
vacant or occupied, the location of the area within the shopping center or shopping 
mall or the duration of the lease. 
D. 
"Management" means any person, partnership, limited liability company, 
corporation, joint venture or other entity managing, owning, operating or otherwise 
controlling the administration of a shopping center or shopping mall. 
E. "Shopping center" means a privately owned complex, enclosed or otherwise, that 
consists of at least 5 establishments in which merchandise is sold at retail, grants 
access to the general public and, including common areas, has at least 75,000 square 
feet of gross leasable area. 
2. 
Access to shopping centers. Subject to the provisions of this subsection, a 
person has the right of free speech and the right to petition in the common area of a 
shopping center, as long as such activities do not interfere with commerce and the free 
flow of pedestrian traffic. 
The right of free speech includes but is not limited to 
expressive activities including wearing articles of clothing, buttons, arm bands and other 
forms of symbolic expression that convey an ideological or political point of view. 
3. 
Space for posting. If management of a shopping center provides space readily 
accessible to pedestrian traffic in the shopping center for the posting of announcements, 
public service messages, proclamations, pamphlets and other related material, the posting 
of material in the display space may not be prohibited on the basis of content except when 
the prohibition is otherwise consistent with constitutional principles relating to freedom 
of speech. 
4. Laws regulating conduct not superseded. Nothing in this section is intended to 
supersede any laws that regulate conduct. 
A. 
The management of a shopping center may establish reasonable time, place and 
manner r~gulations governing the use of a shopping center by persons wishing to 
exercise the right of free speech and the right to petition. 
The regulations may 
include, but are not limited to: 
(1) Requiring a prior application for organized gatherings of 10 or more persons, 
as long as there is an expeditious review of every such application. 
The 
management retains the right to establish a reasonable limit on the total number 
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of persons in a gathering; 
(2) Designating certain portions of the common area of the shopping center to be 
used for the exercise of such rights, as long as the restrictions reasonably 
accommodate efforts to exercise such rights in central common areas of the 
shopping center; 
(3) Limiting the use of shopping center facilities if the exercise of such rights 
would interfere with the free flow of pedestrian traffic; 
(4) Restricting or prohibiting the on-site solicitation of money; 
(5) Prohibiting littering, fighting and making obscene gestures; and 
(6) Restricting or prohibiting the use of lights, sound amplification or other 
equipment that unreasonably interferes with pedestrians, shoppers or occupants. 
I 
The regulations may not discriminate based on the political or ideological content of 
the speech or expressive activities, and they may not be applied to promote or 
undermine a particular political or ideological point of view. 
B. 
A person may not be required to post a bond or make any payment for the 
exercise of the right of free speech or the right to petition in the common area of a 
shopping center, except that the management of a shopping center may require 
persons to clean up litter or other debris resulting from the use of the shopping center 
and may deny future access or require a bond if the person using the shopping center 
has demonstrated a failure to clean up litter or debris in connection with a prior use of 
the shopping center. 
SUMMARY 
This bill amends the Maine Civil Rights Act to address the right of free of speech and 
the right to petition at shopping centers that are privately owned. A shopping center is 
defined as a privately owned complex, enclosed or otherwise, that consists of at least 5 
establishments in which merchandise is sold at retail, grants access to the general public 
and, including common areas, has at least 75,000 square feet of gross leasable area. 
This bill guarantees the right of free speech, including expressive activities, and the 
right to petition in the common area of a shopping center, as long as such expressive 
activities do not interfere with commerce and the free flow of pedestrian traffic. The 
management of a shopping mall may adopt teasonable time, place and manner 
regulations. 
This bill prohibits shopping centers, if they provide space for the posting of 
announcements, public service messages, proclamations, pamphlets and other such 
material, from prohibiting posting based on the content except where the prohibition is 
otherwise consistent with constitutional principles relating to free speech. 
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