Besieged by folks gathering petition signatures over the last few months, you are surely aware that itap election season once again. Throughout this process, itap likely that you encountered one or even both of us in a park or a parking lot asking you to sign petitions promoting the causes we are passionate about. When we met one another, we shared stories about how exhilarating the process can be — meeting interesting people who care deeply about the political process and who were willing to lend their support with their signatures. We also shared stories about how confusing the “rules” we’d encountered were. It appeared to us as if guidance regarding where, when and how one can pursue this basic right in Colorado can seem quite arbitrary.
Much of the time and in many places, it is pretty clear about what is possible. In public places — like parks and on street corners — you are generally free to approach people and ask them to sign. But what about in “private” spaces that don’t seem to be all that private at all? For instance, grocery store parking lots or shopping malls. We realized that we needed to do some research to make sure we were being respectful and legitimate about the process we were each using. As it turns out, researching this confusing puzzle was not at all easy.
We talked with city attorneys in Colorado who often referred us to the state folks, who, in turn, often told us it was a matter of judicial interpretation. We talked with store owners, police departments, district attorneys and election officials — many of whom referred us to some of the same officials we had already spoken to. They were all genuinely trying to be helpful, were quite responsive, and took the necessary time to help us try to sort this out. But in the end and to our dismay, we received different answers from each of these very well-meaning officials and merchants. We decided that perhaps we needed to do some more legal research.
Sadly, even our legal research didn’t clarify things. We learned that federal courts have upheld the right to gather petition signatures as a foundational cornerstone of American democracy — the right to free speech through the act of petition (Myer vs. Grant, 1988) and to do so in public spaces even when that public space is owned by a private entity. For example, in Marsh vs. Alabama (1946), the court found that the right to free speech could not be denied in public areas of a company owned town (establishing the precedent of “private-public access” property). Building on this decision, subsequent cases have further defined areas in which the right to petition cannot be denied. These include traditional public forums such as streets, sidewalks and parks (Hague vs. CIO, 1939; and Hill vs. Colorado, 2000) as well as shopping center parking lots (Bock vs. Westminster Mall Co., 1991).
What we finally realized is that although often overlooked in favor of other, more famous freedoms, the right to petition is fundamental as a means of protecting public participation in government. We also realized that far too many people of good will and good intentions are genuinely confused about what, where and how citizens are allowed to gather petition signatures. So too are citizens, including those who honestly want to do the right thing. Given the importance of gathering input directly from our neighbors through the process of petition, it is our sincere hope that public officials and merchants might come together to clarify what is allowed in Colorado. Only in this way can we ensure that the petition-gathering process might continue to play an important role in the political process under circumstances that are both clear and respectful.
Martin Widzer teaches in the Department of Political Science at the University of Colorado Denver. Barbara Shecter recently retired from more than 40 years of work in public health, construction and legal administration.
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