Judge dismisses Collins suit

A former political candidate who sued over his right to distribute leaflets in a local parking lot hit a roadblock last month, when a judge effectively dismissed his case. Now Richard Collins is trying to figure out the best way to get his case before the State Supreme Court.
    Last month, Albemarle Circuit Judge Paul Peatross ruled that the Virginia Constitution does not entitle Collins to hand out political pamphlets in the Shoppers’ World parking lot on Route 29N.
    In May 2005, Collins was campaigning for the Democratic nomination in a three-way race for Charlottesville’s House of Delegates seat. Hoping to reach the crunchy crowd at Whole Foods, Collins started handing out campaign fliers in the parking lot. Shoppers’ World owner Charles Lebo had Collins arrested for trespassing.
    In October, Collins was convicted of trespassing and fined $50 (former City Councilor David Toscano went on to win the delegate seat). Collins filed a civil suit claiming that parking lots have become America’s public squares, and so he had a right “to engage in peaceful, nondisruptive political speech.”
Peatross disagreed. He ruled that “Under the Virginia Constitution, there is no general right to engage in political speech in privately-owned shopping centers.”
    Now Collins is meeting with a team of veteran lawyers—including Steven Rosenfield, Frazier Solsberry with help from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and the Rutherford Institute—to decide his next step, whether to appeal Peatross’ judgement in the civil suit or appeal his trespassing conviction.
    Collins, a recently retired UVA professor and environmental activist, says, “It’s largely an issue of defining property rights and balancing them against other interests in the community. Private property rights are not sacrosanct and above every other right. They need to be balanced against the rights of individuals and the community at large. That’s my cause.”