Anti-Examiner law challenged
The state of California could be the first US state to introduce a law which would make it illegal to distribute newspapers to households without consent. When someone under the new law would find an unwanted newspaper in his lawn or on his doorstep he could sue the newspaper. The financial consequences could be fatal.
Although the law is ‘general’ it is actually aimed at only one newspaper: The San Francisco Examiner, a free, mostly home delivered newspaper, published by Clarity Media, and owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz.
Behind the legislation is Green Party Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, according to Matt Smith of the SF Weekly. In his article he is attacking the plans as curtailing the freedom of the press and possibly also going against the First Amendment.
The support the plans get from other publications is hypocritical according to Smith. The law is just a way to get a competitor out of the way. He also makes the case that The Examiner is actually doing much better than SF Chronicle in enterprise reporting and investigative journalism. In short: a must-read.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I would say check and see if it is a deed restriction or a county ordinance. Deed restriction can be enforce if the restriction was written before he started deliverying. If he was already delivering when the deed restriction was written then he should be grandfathered in. But caution! Keep a no throw list and enforce it and the same with the county ordinance.
Another angle is if you are using a rightaway for more 7 years in the state of Florida you can continue using that rightaway for that purpose. TYhese are just suggestions and or things to look at. Appreciate the Info.
TomL