Court Calendar

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1999:

San Diego Superior Court Judge
John S. Meyer on August 20 ruled that the
35-page Fashion Valley Mall a p p l i c a t i o n
for permission to engage in “expressive”
activity there is overbroad and unconstitutional.
Meyer lifted a preliminary injunction
the mall owners obtained in December 1998
against Last Chance for Animals, other
activist groups, and dozens of individuals
who had participated in anti-fur demonstrations
there. Earlier, on June 11, Meyer let
the injunction stand, but held unconstitutional
a policy prohibiting protesters from
telling shoppers they should not patronize
merchants at the mall. The Fashion Valley
Mall has now amended their application,
LCA executive director Eric Mindel t o l d
ANIMAL PEOPLE, and is to apply again
for an injunction on October 4. Ironically,
the case is now down to just four defendants,
Mindel noted: LCA, himself personally,
LCA attorney Roland Vincent, and one
other individual. None of them were ever
part of any action involving the mall,
Mindel said, until they were named in the
1998 preliminary injunction, and decided to
fight it as a potential landmark in the evolution
of law pertaining to shopping malls as
venues for public expression.

Horsetheft charges brought
against HorseAid rescue volunteers Becky
Burns and Angela Williams in Ray
County, Missouri in July were dropped at a
preliminary hearing on August 25, after
HorseAid defense attorney F a r r e l l
H o c k e m e i e r demonstrated in court that the
HorseAid adoption contract allows HorseAid
to inspect the equines they place at any time,
and to repossess them if HorseAid care standards
are not met. One of those standards is
an absolute prohibition on breeding. Burns
and Williams were charged while removing
four horses from the farm of Don and Sally
Stokes. HorseAid had adopted three of the
horses to the Stokes family; the fourth was a
foal born to one of the horses.