Opinion ID: 2597507
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Application of article I, section 4 of the Hawai'i Constitution to the exercise of free speech in privately owned shopping centers

Text: The United States Constitution prohibits Congress from enacting laws abridging the freedom of speech.... U.S. Const. amend. I. Article I, section 4 of the Hawai'i Constitution provides in relevant part that [n]o law shall be enacted ... abridging the freedom of speech. The rights specified in this section, virtually unchanged since statehood, are often referred to as `first amendment rights' because they are identical to those found in the [f]irst [a]mendment to the [United States] Constitution. In re John Doe, 76 Hawai'i at 93 n. 16, 869 P.2d at 1312 n. 16 (quoting A.F. Lee, The Hawaii Constitution 37 (1993)) (brackets in original). Professor Friesen has noted that `[s]tate free speech provisions are not generally violated by criminal statutes that, properly drawn, are aimed at the injurious effects of a threatening communication rather than the communication itself.' Id. at 93-94 n. 16, 869 P.2d at 1312-13 n. 16 (quoting J. Friesen, State Constitutional Law: Litigating Individual Rights, Claims and Defenses § 5.04 [3] at 5-20 to 5-20.1 (1993)). We have long recognized, beginning with State v. Texeira, 50 Haw. 138, 142 n. 2, 433 P.2d 593, 597 n. 2 (1967), that `as the ultimate judicial tribunal with final, unreviewable authority to interpret and enforce the Hawai'i Constitution, we are free to give broader protection under the Hawai'i Constitution than that given by the federal constitution.' State v. Arceo, 84 Hawai'i at 28, 928 P.2d at 870 (1996) (quoting State v. Wallace, 80 Hawai'i 382, 397 n. 14, 910 P.2d 695, 710 n. 14 (1996) (quoting State v. Hoey, 77 Hawai'i 17, 36, 881 P.2d 504, 523 (1994))). See State v. Kam, 69 Haw. 483, 491, 748 P.2d 372, 377 (1988) (Hawaii's constitution affords greater privacy rights than the federal right to privacy); State v. Rogan, 91 Hawai'i 405, 423, 984 P.2d 1231, 1249 (1999) (Hawaii's double jeopardy clause provides defendants broader protection than federal counterpart); State v. Lessary, 75 Haw. 446, 453, 865 P.2d 150, 154 (adopting the same conduct test and rejecting the federal standard based on the same elements test); State v. Santiago, 53 Haw. 254, 266, 492 P.2d 657, 664 (1971) (the protections enumerated by the United States Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), have an independent source in the Hawai'i Constitution's privilege against self-incrimination); State v. Hoey, 77 Hawai''i 17, 36, 881 P.2d 504, 523 (1994) (affording broader protection to suspects during custodial interrogation under Hawai'i Constitution than that recognized by Davis v. United States, 512 U.S. 452, 114 S.Ct. 2350, 129 L.Ed.2d 362 (1994)). We have also long recognized that [t]he Hawai'i Constitution must be construed with due regard to the intent of the framers and the people adopting it[,] Kam, 69 Haw. at 492, 748 P.2d at 377, and that the fundamental principle in interpreting a constitutional provision is to give effect to that intent. Id. The initial inquiry, then, is whether, notwithstanding the identical language of article I, section 4 of the Hawai'i Constitution and the first amendment to the United States Constitution, the framers of the Hawai'i Constitution intended the protections afforded free speech therein to apply more broadly than their federal counterparts. Unfortunately, the proceedings of the 1950, 1968, and 1978 Hawai'i Constitutional Conventions shed no light on the framers' intent regarding the breadth of Hawaii's constitutional protection of free speech. Inasmuch as there is no indication from the constitutional conventions to suggest that the Hawai'i constitutional protection of free speech was intended to be applied more broadly than its federal counterpart, we note that there is nothing intrinsic in the language of article I, section 4 that requires more extensive protection of free speech than the first amendment affords in the context of privately owned shopping centers. Thus, somewhat analogously, in Estes v. Kapiolani Women's and Children's Medical Center, 71 Haw. 190, 787 P.2d 216 (1990), we held that a hospital's no-solicitation policy precluding distribution of leaflets and other expressions of anti-abortion views did not implicate state action for the purposes of the state constitutional guarantee of free speech, and that an interior walkway adjacent to one of the main entrances of the hospital was not historically or traditionally associated with the exercise of free speech rights and therefore not to be treated as public property for free speech purposes. Hence, regarding article I, section 4 of the Hawai'i Constitution in a civil context, we have already endorsed the principle that state action is a prerequisite to a showing that the freedom of speech has constitutionally been abridged. Viglielmo argues that we should adopt the reasoning of the United States Supreme Court in Logan Valley, see supra section III.A.3, as well as that of the few states that have interpreted their constitutions to offer broader protections for speech in shopping centers than does the United States Constitution, contending that shopping centers now perform the traditional function of what in bygone times was the town center, and that, therefore, free speech must be protected on shopping center grounds. [8] In essence, Viglielmo advocates a standard that requires no state action abridging free speech and relies exclusively on the perceived equivalency of shopping centers and municipalities in seeking to subject private parties to the imperatives of the state constitutional guarantee of free speech. We cannot accept Viglielmo's position. Logan Valley was overruled by the United States Supreme Court's decision in Lloyd. As previously discussed, see supra section III.B.2, the minority of states that have allowed for broader state constitutional protection of free speech than that afforded by the first amendment, have generally done so under idiosyncratic constitutional provisions. Notwithstanding Ala Moana's size, number of visitors monthly, central bus transfer station, United States Post Office, and Honolulu satellite city hall, we cannot conclude on the record before us that Ala Moana is akin to a state actor.