Court Opinion

ID: 9788956
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:23:17.394406+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:17.984003
License: Public Domain

GEORGE, C. J.
I concur in the determination that article I, section 2, subdivision (a) of the California Constitution (section 2(a) or the free speech clause) does not afford defendant tenants association a right to distribute *1036unsolicited pamphlets in the interior hallways of privately owned apartment buildings from which the general public is excluded.
As I shall explain, the particular category of free speech claim here at issue—the right to distribute unsolicited pamphlets on another’s property—is applicable only with respect to locations that, whether publicly or privately owned, are freely open to the general public. Because a recognition of the appropriate limit of this substantive right of free speech is sufficient in itself to resolve this case, I believe it is unnecessary to reach out to decide the much broader question of whether section 2(a)’s right of “[e]very person [to] freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects” affords individuals, as a general matter and in all circumstances, protection against only “state action” and not against the conduct or actions of private parties.
Neither the parties nor the lower courts focused upon the broad issue of whether the state constitutional free speech clause applies, as a general matter, only to state action, and there is no reason to undertake to resolve that question here. Even if the apartment complex at issue had been publicly owned (and thus the state action doctrine clearly satisfied), the state constitutional right of free speech would not extend to the unsolicited distribution of pamphlets in the interior hallways of an apartment building that is not generally open to the public. Accordingly, although I concur in the judgment, I do not join the lead opinion’s discussion or conclusions with regard to the state action doctrine.
I.
More than a half-century ago, the New York Court of Appeals, in Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc., Inc. v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. (1948) 297 N.Y. 339 [79 N.E.2d 433, 3 A.L.R.3d 1423] (Watchtower), unanimously declined to recognize either a state or federal constitutional right to solicit or distribute unsolicited pamphlets in the closed areas of a large private apartment complex. The court in Watchtower observed that “[a] narrow inner hallway on an upper floor of an apartment house is hardly an appropriate place at which to demand the free exercise of’ such rights (id., at p. 436), and that “no case we know of extends the reach of the Bill of Rights so far as to proscribe the reasonable regulation, by an owner, of conduct inside his multiple dwelling.” (Id., at pp. 436-437, italics added.) Likewise, no decision of which I am aware, before or since Watchtower, has recognized a constitutional right to distribute unsolicited pamphlets in the closed interior hallways of privately owned apartment buildings or, for that matter, in any other analogous area that is closed to the general public.
*1037The United States Supreme Court has found a First Amendment free speech right to picket or distribute literature on public streets and sidewalks, and in doing so it has emphasized the open nature of those locations as a basis for its conclusion. (E.g., Thornhill v. Alabama (1940) 310 U.S. 88, 105-106 [60 S.Ct. 736, 745-746, 84 L.Ed. 1093] (Thornhill); see also Hague v. C.I.O. (1939) 307 U.S. 496, 515-516 [59 S.Ct. 954, 963-964, 83 L.Ed. 1423] [public streets and parks have been traditional grounds for exercise of free expression]; Lovell v. Griffin (1938) 303 U.S. 444 [58 S.Ct. 666, 82 L.Ed. 949] [finding First Amendment right to distribute religious pamphlets on public sidewalks].) In Marsh v. Alabama (1946) 326 U.S. 501 [66 S.Ct. 276, 90 L.Ed. 265] (Marsh), the high court extended this rule to the business district of a private “company town.” The court in Marsh found a free speech right to distribute religious literature, and emphasized that the private town’s business district was “freely accessible and open” to the public. (Id., at p. 508 [66 S.Ct. at p. 279].)1
In Schwartz-Torrance Investment Corp. v. Bakery & Confectionery Workers’ Union (1964) 61 Cal.2d 766 [40 Cal.Rptr. 233, 394 P.2d 921] (Schwartz-Torrance), this court, citing Thornhill and Marsh, found a right to peacefully picket at a privately owned shopping center. In so concluding, we emphasized the public nature of the shopping center (Schwartz-Torrance, supra, at pp. 772-773, and cases cited) and distinguished Labor Board v. Babcock & Wilcox Co. (1956) 351 U.S. 105 [76 S.Ct. 679, 100 L.Ed. 975], in which the high court upheld an employer’s right to prohibit picketing in a company parking lot. We explained; “Unlike the . . . property in the present case, the Babcock & Wilcox parking lot was not generally open to the public.” (Schwartz-Torrance, supra, 61 Cal.2d at p. 774.)
Subsequently, in In re Hoffinan (1967) 67 Cal.2d 845 [64 Cal.Rptr. 97, 434 P.2d 353], we found a right to peacefully and unobtrusively distribute leaflets protesting the Vietnam War, in the privately owned Union Station of Los Angeles. In reaching our conclusion we emphasized that the railway station was a “spacious area open to the community as a center for rail transportation” (id., at p. 847) and that in this respect it was analogous to a “public street or park” (id., at p. 851).
Consistently with Schwartz-Torrance, in Food Employees v. Logan Plaza (1968) 391 U.S. 308 [88 S.Ct. 1601, 20 L.Ed.2d 603] (Logan Plaza), the *1038high court found a free speech right to peacefully picket and distribute handbills in a privately owned shopping mall, and in so concluding emphasized the public’s “virtually unrestricted access” to the mall property. (Id., at p. 321 [88 S.Ct. at p. 1610]; see also id., at pp. 313, 325 [88 S.Ct. at pp. 1605-1606, 1612].) The court in Logan Plaza observed that in circumstances in which “property is not ordinarily open to the public, this Court has held that access to it for the purpose of exercising First Amendment rights may be denied altogether.” (Id., at p. 320 [88 S.Ct. at p. 1609], italics added.)2
In In re Lane (1969) 71 Cal.2d 872 [79 Cal.Rptr. 729, 457 P.2d 561], we found a right to peacefully distribute labor union handbills on a private sidewalk abutting a large “stand alone” supermarket. In so concluding we cited and followed the above cases and emphasized that the private sidewalk was “open to the public” and that “[t]he public is openly invited to use it.” (Id., at p. 878.)
Robins v. Pruneyard Shopping Center (1979) 23 Cal.3d 899 [153 Cal.Rptr. 854, 592 P.2d 341] (Robins), affirmed sub nomine Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins (1980) 447 U.S. 74 [100 S.Ct. 2035, 64 L.Ed.2d 741], followed this same approach, finding a right under section 2(a) to seek petition signatures and to speak with patrons on a matter of public interest in a privately owned shopping center. Our decision in Robins emphasized that the center was freely open to the public (Robins, supra, 23 Cal.3d at pp. 902, 909-911), and indeed we implicitly exempted “ ‘an individual homeowner’ ” from our holding (id., at p. 910), presumably, as the lead opinion notes, “because individual homes are not freely and openly accessible to the public.” (Lead opn., ante, at p. 1032.)
California decisions filed since Robins, finding a state constitutional free speech right to distribute pamphlets or to picket, have continued to emphasize the open nature of the location where the rights were to be exercised. (E.g., Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. San Diego District Council of Carpenters (1979) 25 Cal.3d 317, 328, 332 [158 Cal.Rptr. 370, 599 P.2d 676] [upholding union’s free speech right to picket on employer’s privately owned sidewalks surrounding its store; court emphasized that the sidewalk was open to the general public and was a “traditional and accepted place where unions may, by peaceful picketing, present to the public their views respecting a labor dispute with that store”]; Prisoners Union v. Department of Corrections (1982) 135 Cal.App.3d 930, 932 [185 Cal.Rptr. 634] [recognizing the right to distribute pamphlets in a prison parking lot “open to *1039members of the general public”]; Westside Sane/Freeze v. Ernest W. Hahn, Inc. (1990) 224 Cal.App.3d 546, 552-556 [274 Cal.Rptr. 51] [upholding political group’s free speech right to distribute leaflets at a privately owned shopping center; court asserted that the shopping center, to which the public was invited, was a public forum for exercising free speech rights]; see also Los Angeles Alliance for Survival v. City of Los Angeles (2000) 22 Cal.4th 352, 363, 364 [93 Cal.Rptr.2d 1, 993 P.2d 334] [ordinance that regulated and banned solicitation of funds in “public places,” including sidewalks, bus stops, and restaurants, “plainly implicate[d]” section 2(a)’s free speech right].)
Sister state decisions that have found a state constitutional free speech right to distribute pamphlets in private shopping centers likewise have stressed the open and public nature of the forum. (See Bock v. Westminster Mall Co. (Colo. 1991) 819 P.2d 55, 61-63; New Jersey Coalition Against War v. J.M.B. Realty Corp. (1994) 138 N.J. 326 [650 A.2d 757, 771-774, 52 A.L.R.5th 777].) Similarly, state court decisions that have recognized other state constitutional rights (distinct from a free speech right) to solicit signatures at private shopping centers also have emphasized the open and public nature of the forum. (See Batchelder v. Allied Stores Intern., Inc. (1983) 388 Mass. 83 [445 N.E.2d 590, 595, 38 A.L.R.4th 1206] (Batchelder) [finding right to solicit signatures under state constitution’s “freedom and equality of elections” provision];3 Alderwood Associates v. Washington Environmental Council (Wash. 1981) 635 P.2d 108, 116-117 (Alderwood) [finding right to solicit signatures under state constitution’s initiative provision].)4
As these decisions suggest, the acts of distributing unsolicited pamphlets, picketing, and soliciting signatures or funds traditionally are performed in places open to the general public—that is, in places sometimes referred to as public forums.5 In light of this tradition, when one speaks of a “constitutional right” to engage in such conduct, one cannot reasonably have in mind *1040an asserted right to invade the interior hallways of a private business structure, home, or apartment complex, in order to proffer an unsolicited flier, placard or petition. Under the foregoing decisions, there is no state or federal constitutional right to distribute unsolicited pamphlets in a location (whether publicly or privately owned) not open to the general public, such as the closed interior hallways of the apartment buildings here at issue. (Watchtower, supra, 79 N.E.2d 433, 436-437, quoted ante, at p. 1036; Hall v. Virginia (1948) 188 Va. 72 [49 S.E.2d 369, 375-378] [there is no constitutional right to distribute unsolicited pamphlets in the interior hallways of an apartment complex]; Annot., Right of Owner of Housing Development or Apartment Houses to Restrict Canvassing, Peddling, Solicitation of Contributions, etc. (1949) 3 A.L.R.2d 1431, 1432-1433 [“[Regulations of . . . apartment house owners, which have the effect of restricting . . . solicitation, etc., will not be held . . . unconstitutional as violating constitutional guaranties of others to freedom of religion, speech, or press, where the activities are curtailed in places . . . not public or quasi-public in nature, and where the rights of persons to privacy in their dwelling places are protected from infringement by such regulations”]; see also Batchelder, supra, 445 N.E.2d 590, 595, quoted ante, at fn. 3.)
In the case now before us, the landlord has limited hallway access to residential tenants and their invitees, and has excluded the general public. Accordingly, this case is quite different from Robins, supra, 23 Cal.3d 899, and the other free speech cases discussed above. A free speech right to distribute unsolicited pamphlets in places open to the general public simply is not triggered on the facts presented.
It is thus apparent that the state action doctrine is irrelevant to this case. Had the apartment complex been owned by the state and had the apartment *1041been operated in the same manner as here—that is, by restricting access to interior hallways to tenants and their invitees—the tenants still would have no section 2(a) free speech right to distribute unsolicited pamphlets in the buildings’ interior hallways, because, as noted above, the constitutional right conferred by section 2(a) to distribute unsolicited pamphlets is inapplicable to the interior hallways of apartment buildings that are closed to the general public.
II.
It is important to emphasize what we do not consider or decide in this case. We do not face any effort by a landlord to ban all discourse by tenants in the closed hallways. Tenants remain free to speak with each other in the hallways or elsewhere about anything they wish. Tenants may knock on the doors of other tenants and speak with them. They may telephone or fax each other, or correspond by letter or e-mail. Pursuant to the landlord’s rules, they may post fliers on the bulletin boards of the laundry rooms, and they may even, upon request, deliver, and leave at the door of another tenant, the very same pamphlets whose intended distribution triggered this case. As relevant here, the landlord’s rule simply prohibits the tenants association from leaving unsolicited pamphlets on or under the hallway doors of fellow tenants, or in a pile for the taking in the hallway.
Furthermore, although I conclude for the reasons discussed above that the tenants association possesses no constitutional right to leave the unsolicited pamphlets here at issue in the hallways or on or under the hallway doors of fellow tenants, it does not necessarily follow that tenants have no right of any sort to do so. Tenants in fact may have such rights, depending upon the terms of the applicable lease or a statute, or based upon general principles of landlord-tenant law. (See, e.g., Civ. Code, §§ 1942.5, 1942.6, 1953; Lobsenz & Swanson, The Residential Tenant’s Right to Freedom of Political Expression (1986) 10 U. Puget Sound L.Rev. 1, 39-41, 45-49.) Because the only issue upon which we granted review is whether the state constitutional right of free speech extends to the distribution of pamphlets in the interior hallways of an apartment building that is not open to the public, we have no occasion to decide whether tenants or a tenants association may derive such a right from some other source.
III.
There is much to be said for taking an incrementalist approach to appellate decisionmaking, and such jurisprudential considerations apply especially when, as here, we face the significant task of defining the contours of an *1042aspect of the state constitutional right of free speech that we have not addressed for more than two decades. The analysis set forth above affords a fully adequate basis upon which to resolve this matter, and I believe the court can, and should, leave to another day and another case the difficult task of further defining and clarifying the scope of section 2(a)’s free speech right. I note that one such case, Waremart, Inc. v. Progressive Campaigns, review granted March 14, 2001, S094236, already is pending before our court. 
Instead of resolving this case narrowly on the basis of the issue discussed above, the lead opinion proposes to hold that state action or its equivalent must be established in order to raise any claim under section 2(a) (lead opn., ante, at p. 1031), and further suggests that “prívate property must be public in character before California’s free speech clause may apply.” {Id., at p. 1033, italics added.) But even if one were to accept the lead opinion’s assertion that a finding of state action or its equivalent is required with regard to the specific subcategory of free speech here at issue—the right to distribute unsolicited pamphlets—such a determination would not, in my view, necessarily control other types of free speech claims that might be asserted under section 2(a). By proposing to reach the state action issue, and by speaking broadly and asserting that as a general matter, section 2(a) can afford no type of free speech right with regard to a forum that is both privately owned and closed to the general public, the lead opinion says more than it needs to, and more than is supported by our prior decisions.
When, in a future case, this court does address and decide whether, and in what circumstances, section 2(a) should be construed as requiring a showing of state action, it will be helpful to consider the diverse circumstances in which the free speech clause might be implicated. I have in mind circumstances in which a private person or entity may attempt to utilize its power or authority in one sphere to censor or undermine what might be viewed as another individual’s “core” free speech rights. Consider a private landlord who, under penalty of eviction, precludes his or her tenants from displaying in the windows of their apartments the campaign poster of a particular political candidate supported by the tenant—or requires the tenants to display in the windows of their homes a poster of the candidate supported by the landlord. Or consider a union or employer that attempts to utilize its power over an individual by precluding certain bumper stickers on vehicles parked in the employer’s or union’s parking lot, or by requiring that the employee place a certain bumper sticker on his or her vehicle or attend a rally and make a political contribution, unconnected to employment-related issues, in support of a candidate favored by the union or employer but not supported by the employee.
*1043If we were to hold, as the lead opinion broadly would, that all types of section 2(a) free speech claims require state action (or its equivalent, shown by establishing that the location where the speech is exercised is the “functional equivalent of a traditional public forum”) (lead opn., ante, at p. 1033), we effectively would remove any state constitutional obstacle to any such action by a landlord, union, or employer. I see no reason to prejudge the resolution of such questions.
Given the variety of circumstances in which free speech concerns may come into play, and the difficulty of predicting how the presence or absence of a “state action” requirement might affect the practical protection conferred by the free speech right embodied in the California Constitution’s free speech clause, I believe we should proceed cautiously and limit our decision to the context presented by the facts before us.
IV.
I join in the judgment of the court, because I believe that section 2(a) of the California Constitution has no application in the context presented here. I would decide no more.

 The court observed: “The more an owner, for his advantage, opens up his property for use by the public in general, the more do his rights become circumscribed by the statutory and constitutional rights of those who use it. [Citation.] Thus, the owners of privately held bridges, ferries, turnpikes and railroads may not operate them as freely as a farmer does his farm. Since these facilities are built and operated primarily to benefit the public and since their operation is essentially a public function, it is subject to state regulation.” (Marsh, supra, 326 U.S. at p. 506 [66 S.Ct. at p. 278].)

 The high court reversed Logan Plaza in Hudgens v. NLRB (1976) 424 U.S. 507 [96 S.Ct. 1029, 47 L.Ed.2d 196].

 The court in Batchelder observed: “We are not discussing signature solicitations in stores but only unobtrusive and reasonable solicitations in the common areas of the mall, areas that have been dedicated to the public as a practical matter.” (Batchelder, supra, 445 N.E.2d at p. 595, italics added.)

 In Southcenter v. National Dem. Policy Comm. (1989) 113 Wash.2d 413 [780 P.2d 1282, 1290], the Washington Supreme Court subsequently reaffirmed this aspect of Alderwood, while at the same time rejecting other facets of that decision.

 Decisions upholding a right to distribute pamphlets door-to-door (e.g., Martin v. City of Struthers (1943) 319 U.S. 141 [63 S.Ct. 862, 87 L.Ed. 1313]; Van Nuys Pub. Co. v. City of Thousand Oaks (1971) 5 Cal.3d 817 [97 Cal.Rptr. 777, 489 P.2d 809]) recognize that unless the occupant of a dwelling announces a desire not to receive unsolicited material, members of the general public are permitted to traverse a private walkway, and leave pamphlets on or near any dwelling door that is located in an area not closed to the general public. Accordingly, in *1040situations contemplated in those decisions, unlike the present case, the area leading to and immediately surrounding the door is not closed to the general public.
Laguna Publishing Co. v. Golden Rain Foundation (1982) 131 Cal.App.3d 816 [182 Cal.Rptr. 813] (Laguna Publishing Co.) is distinguishable from the present case. In that case, a newspaper publisher was barred by the homeowners association of a private gated community from entering the community and depositing unsolicited copies of its free newspaper at the doors of the residents of the community. At the same time, the association permitted another newspaper publisher to deliver its competing free and unsolicited newspaper to the doors of the community residents. The excluded publisher sued in order to establish its right to distribute on an equal footing with the preferred publisher. Although the Court of Appeal found that the excluded publisher had a right under article 2(a) to distribute its newspapers to the doors of the community residents on an equal basis with the other publisher, that court’s decision rested upon the discriminatory nature of the challenged policy. (See Laguna Publishing Co., supra, at pp. 840-845.) The Court of Appeal in Laguna Publishing Co. concluded that the dispute presented was “purely and simply a discrimination case with substantial economic consequences,” and “not one truly involving the resolution of rights of free speech in conflict with the vested rights of private property.” (Id., at pp. 847-848, fn. 14.)