Di Lorenzo v. City of Pacific Grove

—Plaintiff Adeline Di Lorenzo commenced an action seeking to enjoin the enforcement of an ordinance of defendant City of Pacific Grove. From a judgment for defendant city, entered after an order sustaining a demurrer without leave to amend, plaintiff appeals.

The question before us is whether the publisher of a newspaper has a constitutional right, by virtue of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, to place a newspaper on the premises of a private residence without the consent of the resident, where a city council has determined by ordinance that such activity constitutes a threat to public safety.

The ordinance in question is numbered 534 N.S. In its pertinent parts it states the following:

Among other things, plaintiff alleges in her complaint that she was and is the owner and publisher of " The Pacific G-rove Times,” a newspaper published and distributed in Monterey County; that defendant city has prevented her, by arrest and threat of further arrests, from delivering or distributing her newspaper in private places in the City of Pacific Grove without the prior consent of the owners of such private places.

It will be noted that Ordinance 534 N.S. makes it unlawful “to throw…