Petitioning in front of stores

Q: My group is being told by Target, Sam's Club, and other stores that we are not allowed to circulate a petition in front of their stores. Doesn't that violate our right to get an initiative on the ballot? What are our rights?

A: The California Supreme Court has held that the California Constitution protects petitioning and signature-gathering activity at large shopping malls. Robins v. Pruneyard Shopping Center, 23 Cal. 3d 899 (1979).

However, that does not mean that a mall must allow an organization to gather signatures anywhere on mall property at any time. Malls may impose "time, place and manner" regulations that may require an organization to fill out an application for a designated period of time on certain pre-set days, and may restrict petitioning and signature-gathering to certain designated "common areas" in the mall. Among other things, this can result in a mall legitimately prohibiting signature-gathering in front of a particular store, such as the stores you mentioned, as long as reasonable alternative sites in the mall are made available.

In addition, the right to petition and gather signatures in large shopping malls may not apply to stand-alone stores (i.e., stores not part of a mall). It is not clear from your email whether the stores who turned you down were stand-alone or in malls, but at least one California Court of Appeal has held that the Pruneyard right to petition and gather signatures did not apply to a stand-alone Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's Co. v. Progressive Campaigns, Inc., 73 Cal. App. 4th 425 (1999).