Opinion ID: 2634656
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Government Speech Argument

Text: The Secretary argues at length the generic advertising at issue here is a form of government speech subject to a very deferential constitutional standard of review. (See Keller, supra, 496 U.S. at pp. 12-13, 110 S.Ct. 2228.) The Secretary's principal argument is that he must ultimately approve any generic advertising issued by the California Plum Marketing Board, which is itself organized pursuant to statute, and that therefore the speech is actually that of the State of California rather than of a private association. Gerawan claims on the other hand that the Secretary's approval is a mere formality, that generic advertising is not authentically government speech because it is funded by agricultural producers rather than taxpayers and originates from and is ultimately approved by those producers rather than the government. Gerawan also contends that Gerawan I considered and rejected the government speech argument and that conclusion remains the law of the case. In Gerawan I we stated: Whether, and how, article I's free speech clause may accommodate government speech [citation] is a question that we need not, and do not, answer. In its amended complaint, Gerawan did not allege facts that would show that generic advertising under the California Plum Marketing Program  which is not so much a mechanism of regulation of the producers and handlers of an agricultural commodity by a governmental agency, as a mechanism of self-regulation by the producers and handlers themselves  amounts to speech of this sort. Neither did the Secretary of Food and Agriculture so claim in his motion for judgment on the pleadings. At oral argument, counsel for certain of the amici curiae supporting the secretary's position attempted to raise the point. Too little, too late. ( Gerawan I, supra, 24 Cal.4th at p. 515, fn. 13, 101 Cal.Rptr.2d 470, 12 P.3d 720.) Of course, our conclusion in Gerawan I with respect to the government speech issue was based on Gerawan's pleading. Because we conclude that this case must be remanded for further factfinding, the government will have an opportunity to prove that the speech at issue was in fact government speech. The kind of showing the government would be required to make has been suggested by the United States Supreme Court. In United Foods the court, in declining to consider a similar government speech argument on the grounds that the issue was not raised before the federal Court of Appeals, noted that although the Government asserts that advertising is subject to approval by the Secretary of Agriculture, respondent claims the approval is pro forma. This and other difficult issues would have to be addressed were the program to be labeled, and sustained, as government speech. ( United Foods, supra, 533 U.S. at p. 417, 121 S.Ct. 2334.) In Keller, the court rejected the argument that the State Bar's speech amounted to government speech and stated: The State Bar of California is a good deal different from most other entities that would be regarded in common parlance as `governmental agencies.' Its principal funding comes, not from appropriations made to it by the legislature, but from dues levied on its members by the board of governors. Only lawyers admitted to practice in the State of California are members of the State Bar, and all 122,000 lawyers admitted to practice in the State must be members. Respondent undoubtedly performs important and valuable services for the State by way of governance of the profession, but those services are essentially advisory in nature. ( Keller, supra, 496 U.S. at p. 11, 110 S.Ct. 2228, fn. omitted.) Moreover, other courts considering the issue have found significant whether the commercial speech in question is attributed to the government or to the agricultural producers. (See Cochran v. Veneman, supra, 359 F.3d at pp. 273-274.) In the present case, the marketing board is comprised of and funded by plum producers, and is in that respect similar to the State Bar. But, as United Foods suggests, the speech may nonetheless be considered government speech if in fact the message is decided upon by the Secretary or other government official pursuant to statutorily derived regulatory authority. Because there are factual questions that may be determinative of the outcome  for example, whether the Secretary's approval of the marketing board's message is in fact pro forma, whether the marketing board is in de facto control of the generic advertising program, and whether the speech is attributed to the government  this issue cannot be resolved on the pleadings and requires further factfinding.