Shopping in the Marketplace of Ideas: Why Fashion Valley Mall Means Target and Trader Joe\u27s are the New Town Squares

This Note explains that in Fashion Valley Mall, for the first time since the California high court decided Pruneyard nearly thirty years earlier, the court directly affirmed the notion that the California Constitution\u27s liberty clause protects the right to free-speech activities on private property, such as a large shopping mall, that has taken on the characteristics of a traditional downtown business district. This Note further asserts that the majority\u27s opinion in Fashion Valley Mall requires a different approach from that taken by the state appellate courts in deciding whether stand-alone stores such as Target and Trader Joe\u27s also qualify as public forums where free-speech activity is constitutionally protected

Shopping in the Marketplace of Ideas: Why Fashion Valley Mall Means Target and Trader Joe\u27s are the New Town Squares

This Note explains that in Fashion Valley Mall, for the first time since the California high court decided Pruneyard nearly thirty years earlier, the court directly affirmed the notion that the California Constitution\u27s liberty clause protects the right to free-speech activities on private property, such as a large shopping mall, that has taken on the characteristics of a traditional downtown business district. This Note further asserts that the majority\u27s opinion in Fashion Valley Mall requires a different approach from that taken by the state appellate courts in deciding whether stand-alone stores such as Target and Trader Joe\u27s also qualify as public forums where free-speech activity is constitutionally protected