California Judge Therese Stewart said in the appeals court’s 3-0 ruling. 'A small group of people peacefully handing out leaflets and displaying posters there is not likely to interfere with the property’s use.'
BOB EGELKO: ‘Animal rights activists can hold protests in the parking lot and walkways outside Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, an area that is private property but also a “public forum for expressive activity” under California law, a state appeals court has ruled. The decision by the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco overturned a ruling by a Solano County judge allowing the park’s owners to prohibit protests on its property outside Six Flags. In contrast to the U.S. Constitution, which protects free speech only in public areas, the ruling highlighted California’s broader protections…
The grounds immediately outside the Vallejo park are “large and freely open to the public,” Justice Therese Stewart said in the appeals court’s 3-0 ruling. “A small group of people peacefully handing out leaflets and displaying posters there is not likely to interfere with the property’s use.” She also said the protesters’ goal, a boycott of the park, was “a traditional form of speech to which our state Constitution affords even greater protections than the First Amendment”…
Judge Therese Stewart noted that Six Flags does not meet the usual definition of a park — open space that is available to the public for recreation and relaxation — and its entrance is not “designed and furnished in a manner that encourages people to linger.” On the other hand, she said, the property is large… attracting up to 15,000 daily visitors, and is zoned by Vallejo as “quasi-public,” much like a park. And state courts have recognized in similar cases, Stewart said, that “property rights can and should be redefined to accommodate the conditions of modern life”…
The 138-acre park, formerly called Marine World, features rides and a variety of animals, including dolphins, rare penguins and Bengal tigers. The city of Vallejo owned the park until 2007, when its operators, Park Management Co., bought it for $53.9 million. The company immediately started restricting protests and other “expressive activity,” the court said, and in 2014 banned all such activity on its property, including the parking lot and approaching walkways.
A month later, a group of protesters showed up at the entrance area wearing signs with messages such as “A day of fun for you … a lifetime of misery for him,” with a photo of a whale in a tank, and “Animals Don’t Belong at Six Flags.” Protesters refused requests by park security personnel to move to a public sidewalk, but were barred at a later date when the owners went to court and got a restraining order against several organizations and their members’. SOURCE…
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