Best Animal Society v. Macerich Westside Pavilion Property LLC

The question presented is whether article I, section 2 of the California Constitution permits a privately owned shopping mall to *172 enforce rules that give preferential treatment to labor speech and thereby discriminate against other types of speech. The answer is no. We therefore reverse the trial court’s order denying the motion for preliminary injunction filed by Best Friends Animal Society (Best Friends) against Macerich Westside Pavilion Property LLC (Macerich), the owner of the Westside Pavilion Shopping Center (Westside Pavilion).

FACTS

Westside Pavilion is a large shopping mall comprised of an original building and a new building. Macerich regulates the use of the common areas of Westside Pavilion with rules (WP Rules).

In particular, the WP Rules apply to noncommercial expressive activity such as political and religious speech, the request for signatures on petitions, the registration of voters and the dissemination of noncommercial leaflets or flyers. In addition, they apply to qualified labor activity, which is defined to mean “activity authorized by the National Labor Relations Act or applicable state labor laws that is conducted by: 1) an employee of a…