California Newspaper Publishers Ass'n v. City of Burbank

We decide in this case whether an ordinance which, except in a six-block downtown shopping mall, totally bans the placement of newspaper racks in a city with a population of 85,000 is unconstitutional on its face.

Defendant City of Burbank appeals from a summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs—newspaper associations and newspapers—declaring the ordinance to be unconstitutional under the United States and California Constitutions and permanently enjoining defendant from enforcing it.

These facts are not disputed: Newspaper racks are used as one method of distributing newspapers in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which' includes Burbank. Section 20-24(a) of the Burbank Municipal Code, as amended in 1973, prohibits the placement “upon any public sidewalk or parkway,” of “any movable or immovable "object of any character whatsoever,” excepting boxes in the process of being unloaded, approved receptacles containing trees and shrubs, trash containers, and directional signs.

The section also exémpts: “(4) . . . [N]ewspaper racks within the area known as the Golden Mall, . .'.”

The Golden Mall is a six-block pedestrial mall, more or less in the center of Burbank,…