PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins case brief

PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins case brief summary
447 U.S. 74 (1980)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Appellants, privately owned shopping center and the owner of the shopping center, sought review of the judgment from the Supreme Court of California, which held that the state constitution protected appellees' right to exercise free speech and petition rights on appellants' property.

CASE FACTS
Appellees sought to exercise free speech and petition rights on appellants' property, a privately owned shopping center to which the public was invited. The state supreme court held that the state constitution protected speech and petitioning, reasonably exercised, in shopping centers even where the centers were privately owned.

DISCUSSION

• The Supreme Court affirmed. 
• The Supreme Court held that neither appellants' federally recognized property rights nor their rights under the First Amendment, U.S. Constitutional amendment I, had been infringed. 
• The Supreme Court held that its prior decision did not ex proprio vigor limit the authority of a state to exercise its police power or its sovereign right to adopt in its own constitution individual liberties more expansive than those conferred by the Federal Constitution. 
• The Supreme Court held that the requirement that appellants permit appellees to exercise state-protected rights of free expression did not infringe appellants' property rights under the taking clause, because nothing suggested that the exercise of those rights would unreasonably impair the value or use of appellants' property.

CONCLUSION
The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the state supreme court that allowed appellees to exercise free speech and petition rights on appellants' property, a privately owned shopping center. The Supreme Court held that neither appellants' federally recognized property rights nor their rights under the First Amendment had been infringed.

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