''Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner'', 407 U.S. 551 (1972), was a

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

ruling that the passing out of anti-war leaflets at the

Lloyd Center Lloyd Center is a shopping mall in the Lloyd District, Portland, Oregon, Lloyd District of Portland, Oregon, United States, just northeast of Downtown Portland, downtown. It is owned by Arrow Retail of Dallas. The mall features three floors of ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

, was an infringement on

property right The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership) is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typically ...

s. This differed from '' Marsh v. Alabama'' (1946) and '' Amalgamated Food Employees Union v. Logan Valley Plaza'' (1968) in that ''Marsh'' had the attributes of a municipality and ''Logan Valley'' related to picketing a particular store, while the current case, the distribution of leaflets, is unrelated to any activity in the property.

Background

In 1960, the

, a large shopping mall near downtown

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, owned by the private Lloyd Corporation, had been in operation for eight years when this case commenced. Throughout this period the corporation had a general prohibition on the distribution of handbills, but it was generally open to public use. The Lloyd Corporation permitted the American Legion to sell poppies for disabled veterans, and every year before Christmas it permitted bell ringers for the Salvation Army and

Volunteers of America Volunteers of America (VOA) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1896 that provides affordable housing and other assistance services primarily to low-income people throughout the United States. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the organiz ...

to set up kettles and solicit contributions. However, it denied access to the March of Dimes and Hadassah, a national

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

women's service organization. Both major parties' presidential candidates were allowed to speak in the mall's auditorium. The mall's rules were enforced by twelve commissioned special police officers of the city of Portland. These guards had full jurisdiction within the mall, carried guns, and wore uniforms just like the ones worn by the Portland police. On November 14, 1968, five young people, including the respondents in this case, distributed within the mall handbill invitations to a meeting of the "Resistance Community" to protest against the draft for the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

. The distribution was quiet and orderly, and there was no littering. A customer complained, and security guards informed the respondents that they were trespassing and would be arrested unless they stopped their distribution. The respondents left the premises as requested to avoid arrest and continued passing out handbills on the streets and sidewalks that surrounded the mall. They later brought suit in the

United States District Court for the District of Oregon The United States District Court for the District of Oregon (in case citations, D. Ore. or D. Or.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the state of Oregon. It was created in 1859 when the state was admitted to the Union ...

seeking declaratory and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 2201.

Public or private property

The Lloyd case resonated with the Supreme Court's 1946 '' Marsh v. Alabama'' decision, adjudicating on the public use of the private property. In that case, the court held that a company town could not exclude a

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...

from distributing religious literature on a privately owned sidewalk. Balancing Marsh's First Amendment rights against the owner's property rights, the court, in that case, held that Marsh's rights occupied a "preferred position" and weighed heavier than the owner's rights. In other cases, the courts held that property rights were violated and people's First Amendment rights were not protected on private property. In a similar case in New Jersey, the Supreme court has upheld freedom of speech over private property rights.

Decision

The District Court found that the mall was open to the general public and equivalent to a public business district. Therefore, it held that the Lloyd Corporation's "rule prohibiting the distribution of handbills within the Mall violates ...

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

rights" and issued a permanent injunction restraining the corporation from interfering with these rights. The

Court of Appeals A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

held that it was bound by the lower court's factual determination as to the character of the Center, and concluded that the Supreme Court precedents '' Marsh v. Alabama'' and ''Amalgamated Food Employees Union v. Logan Valley Plaza'' compelled affirmance. The Lloyd Corporation appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which granted certiorari on the question of whether the appeals court's decision violated property rights protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Justice Lewis F. Powell concluded that the respondents could have distributed their handbills on "any public street, on any public sidewalk, in any public park, or in any public building." Therefore, respondents were not entitled to exercise their free-speech rights on the privately owned shopping-center property.

Significance

''Lloyd Corp v. Tanner'' led to the ''

Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins ''Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins'', 447 U.S. 74 (1980), was a U.S. Supreme Court decision issued on June 9, 1980 which affirmed the decision of the California Supreme Court in a case that arose out of a free speech dispute between the Pruneya ...

'' (1980) case, where high school students petitioned against the U.N resolution "Zionism is Racism." The court sided with the First Amendment saying that it didn't violate the mall's rights under the U.S Constitution. However, the court reaffirmed its decision in the previous cases of ''Lloyd v. Tanner'' and ''National Labor Relations Board'', leaving the decision up to the state's own constitution. With

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

's appointees to Supreme Court, it became more conservative than it had been in ''Amalgamated Food Employees Union Local 590 v. Logan Valley Plaza'', where it upheld that shopping center sidewalks were equivalent to public sidewalks, allowing union works to strike and be protected under the First Amendment. The Berger court reversed many of the liberal decisions after ''Lloyd Corp v. Tanner.'' Justice Marshall said in his dissent after the case, "Only the wealthy may find effective communication possible unless we adhere to Marsh v. Alabama." Both Justice Marshall and New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Marie L. Garibaldi noticed that the underlying truth of the matter could be undermining freedom. The New Jersey Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision that the state's constitution protected those who protested the Persian Gulf War. Writing after the case, Chief Justice

Robert Wilentz Robert Nathan Wilentz (February 17, 1927 – July 23, 1996) was Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1979 to 1996, making him the longest-serving Chief Justice since the Supreme Court became New Jersey's highest court in 1948. Ear ...

wrote, " use is more closely associated with the old downtown than leafleting."

References

External links