Delano Farms Co. v. Cal. Table Grape Com.
Annotate this CaseAppellants Delano Farms Company, Four Star Fruit, Inc., Gerawan Farming, Inc., Bidart Bros. and Blanc Vineyards, LLC, challenged the constitutionality of the statutory scheme that establishes respondent, the California Table Grape Commission, and required table grape growers and packers to fund the Commission’s promotional activities. Appellants argued that being compelled to fund the Commission’s generic advertising violated their rights to free speech, free association, due process, liberty and privacy under the California Constitution. The trial court granted summary judgment in the Commission’s favor. The court held that the Commission is a "governmental entity" and thus its speech is government speech that can be funded with compelled assessments. Alternatively, the trial court applied the intermediate scrutiny test set forth in "Gerawan Farming, Inc. v. Kawamura," (33 Cal.4th 1, 22 (2004)), and concluded that the compelled funding scheme did not violate the California Constitution. Appellants argued on appeal to the Court of Appeal that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment. According to appellants, facts relied on by the Commission to demonstrate that the funding scheme passed constitutional muster under intermediate scrutiny were not proved by admissible evidence and were in dispute. Appellants further argued the court erred in finding the speech was government speech because the Commission did not demonstrate either that the Commission is a government entity or that the government controlled the Commission’s activities and speech. Finding no reversible error, the Court of Appeal affirmed.
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