Case: 21-51178
Document: 00516474571
Page: 23
Date Filed: 09/16/2022
No. 21-51178
viewpoints: Because “no specific message is dictated by the State to be
displayed on appellants’ property,” there was “no danger of governmental
discrimination for or against a particular message.” Ibid.
The mall relied in part on Miami Herald, but the PruneYard Court
easily found that case inapplicable. The Court stated that Miami Herald
“rests on the principle that the State cannot tell a newspaper what it must
print,” and it emphasized the “danger in [Miami Herald] that the statute
would dampen the vigor and limit the variety of public debate by deterring
editors from publishing controversial political statements that might trigger
the application of the statute.” Id. at 88. Those concerns were “obviously . . .
not present” in PruneYard. Ibid.
The third case is PG&E. A utility company, PG&E, had a longstanding
practice of including a monthly newsletter in its billing envelopes. 475 U.S.
at 5 (plurality op.). “In appearance no different from a small newspaper,” the
newsletter included political editorials and stories on matters of public
interest alongside tips on energy conservation and information about utility
services. Id. at 5, 8. Concerned that the expense of PG&E’s political speech
was falling on customers, the California Public Utilities Commission
(“Commission”) decided to apportion the billing envelopes’ “extra
space”—that is, the space occupied by the company’s newsletter—and
permit a third-party group representing PG&E ratepayers to use that space
for its opposing messages four months per year. Id. at 5–6. PG&E objected,
arguing that the First Amendment prevented the Commission from forcing
it to include an adverse party’s speech in its billing envelopes.
The Supreme Court ruled for PG&E. A plurality held that the
Commission’s order both interfered with PG&E’s own speech and
impermissibly forced it to associate with the views of other speakers. As in
Miami Herald, the “one-sidedness” of the Commission’s order penalized
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