Plaintiff Fred Meyer Stores, Inc., sought declaratory and injunctive relief barring defendants Craig R. Garrett and Progressive Campaigns, Inc., from soliciting signatures for initiative petitions at its store at Southeast 39th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard in Portland (the Hawthorne store).
The issue raised by the first assignment of error is whether petitioning activity on private property is protected under Article I, section 8, of the Oregon Constitution. Most Oregon cases that have addressed whether a person has a right to solicit petition signatures on private property have been decided under Article IV, section 1, of the Oregon Constitution.
Until recently, Oregon courts had held that, under certain circumstances, petitioning activity on private property was protected under Article IV, section 1, against state interference. See, e.g., Lloyd Corporation v. Whiffen,
However, in Stranahan v. Fred Meyer, Inc.,
Defendants now ask us to resolve whether Article I, section 8, confers a right to solicit signatures for initiative petitions on private property. They rely on our decision in Lloyd Corporation v. Whiffen,
Defendants contend that our cases that were decided under Article IV, section 1, before Stranahan provide the appropriate analysis to use to identify property that is subject to the right that they claim under Article I, section 8. We will assume for these purposes that defendants are correct. As defendants recognize, a central consideration in that analysis is the extent to which a property owner has invited the public to use its property for public rather than commercial purposes. We held in Klein that the Hawthorne store did not have characteristics sufficient to establish that Fred Meyer had “expressly or impliedly invited the public to use the Hawthorne store as a forum for public assembly.” Klein,
Defendants have presented evidence to establish facts that they believe bear on the invitation that Fred Meyer has extended to the public. Those facts include the presence at the store of a number of facilities that people can use: two bulletin boards for posting notices and advertisements, an Oregon Lottery ticket dispenser, mail and UPS boxes, ATMs, public phones, a mechanical riding horse, and a seating area with tables in a delicatessen area of the store. The facts also include information that indicates that Fred Meyer markets
Although defendants have submitted facts in the summary judgment record beyond those that were at issue in Klein, the facts in the record fail to establish that the invitation that Fred Meyer extended to the public regarding use of the Hawthorne store is different from the invitation in Klein. We therefore conclude that the trial court did not err in entering declaratory and injunctive relief that rejected defendants’ claimed right under Article I, section 8, to solicit petition signatures on the Hawthorne store property.
We reject without discussion defendants’ remaining assignments of error.
Affirmed.
Notes
Plaintiff sought relief against a number of other defendants, but it dismissed its claims against them without prejudice. Consequently, the only defendants who are parties to the appeal are Garrett and Progressive Campaigns, Inc.