California Court Again Holds California Pro-Picketing Law is Unconstitutional

The Third District Court of Appeal previously held that California's statutes prohibiting courts from enjoining most union picketing are unconstitutional. See my earlier post here.  The California Supreme Court granted review in that case.

Now the Fifth District Court of Appeal has held the same thing, and involving the same employer, Ralphs Grocery, albeit at a different location.  Money quote:

Laws which prohibit speech based on its content — or, in this case, based on the failure of the speech to address a "labor dispute" — are presumptively invalid. (Simon & Shuster, Inc. v. Members of N.Y. State Crime Victims Bd. (1991) 502 U.S. 105, 116.) Such laws are permitted only if they serve a compelling state interest and are narrowly drawn to accomplish that interest. (Mosley, supra, 408 U.S. 92, 95.) The desire to provide the broadest forum for expression in labor disputes is not a compelling state interest. (Carey v. Brown, supra, 447 U.S. 455, 466.)
We conclude the state may not act to selectively create a free speech right applicable only to the few, while excluding all others, in the absence of a compelling state interest. As a result, we hold that the Moscone Act and Labor Code section 1138.1 contravene the free speech provisions of California Constitution article I, section 2, by discriminatorily conferring speech rights on some, but not all, Californians without a compelling state interest.

Read this one quickly because the Supremes likely will take it up along with the earlier Ralphs case.
The case is Ralphs Grocery Co. v. UFCW Union Local 8 and the opinion is here.