[free-sklyarov] 2600 Meetings?

[Wendy Seltzer]

On Sun, 5 Aug 2001, Karsten M. Self wrote:

> on Sat, Aug 04, 2001 at 11:34:55PM -0400, Andrea (andrea at gravitt.org) wrote:
> > On Sat, 4 Aug 2001 22:50, Klepht <mailto:klepht at eleutheria.org> wrote:
> > >Any report from SF meeting? Other meetings?
> >
> > I had some at 404 last night. Unfortunately the mall where we have been
> > meeting frowns on anything other than spending money, so there was no
> > general public distribution. I hope at least some people will make their
> > own copies and pass them around.
>
> There are several cases in which malls have been found to be public
> spaces for the purposes of assembly.  Suggest you research this, or I
> can dig references on request.

The canonical case is from California in fact -- Pruneyard Shopping
Center v. Robins.  The California Supreme Court held that petitioning in
the privately-owned mall was speech protected by the California
Constitution, and the U.S. Supremes affirmed.  By opening up the mall to
general public activity, the owners created a public forum in which they
couldn't then restrict particular speech, the California court said.
Mileage may vary in other states.

--Wendy

-- 
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy at seltzer.com
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html