In that case, the California court held that signature soliciting for a petition to the government at a privately owned shopping mall is an activity protected by the California Constitution. The court's analysis focused on the question of whether the United States Supreme Court in
Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner, supra, recognized the existence of federally protected property rights so as to preclude a ruling that the California Constitution created broader speech rights as to private property than the United States Constitution. In its 4–3 decision, the court in
Robins concluded that
Lloyd had not created any property rights which were immune from regulation under the California Constitution and that Californians could solicit signatures and distribute handbills in shopping centers pursuant to reasonable regulation by the shopping centers as to time, place and manner. The court quoted from the dissent in an earlier decision, which it then overruled. “ ‘It bears repeated emphasis that we do not have under consideration the property or privacy rights of an individual homeowner or the proprietor of a modest retail establishment.’ ”
23 Cal.3d at 910, 592 P.2d at 347, 153 Cal.Rptr. at 860, quoting
Diamond v. Bland, 11 Cal.3d 331, 345, 521 P.2d 460, 470, 113 Cal.Rptr. 468, 478, cert. denied,
419 U.S. 885, 95 S.Ct. 152, 42 L.Ed.2d 125 (1974) (Mosk, J., dissenting). In affirming the California Supreme Court's decision, the United States Supreme Court held that requiring a privately owned shopping center to permit individuals to exercise their free speech rights on the center's property does not violate either the shopping center owner's property rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments or the owner's free speech rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.