The Supreme Judicial Court this morning issued a decision in STEVEN M. GLOVSKY vs. ROCHE BROS. SUPERMARKETS, INC. that expanded a citizen’s right to gather nomination signatures on the private property at the door of a supermarket. Previous SJC decisions had allowed such signature gathering in the common areas of malls, as those were said to be the functional modern equivalent of the downtown.
In this instance the candidate sought to gather signatures at the door into the Westwood Roche Bros. market, but was told by the manager it was not permitted and was asked to leave. The candidate invoked his rights to equal ballot access under art. 9 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, and the SJC agreed.
Justice Duffly, a thoughtful jurist and a wonderful person before whom I did a trial when she was a trial judge, wrote the majority decision, and Justice Cordy dissented, saying the court had gone too far as to infringe private property rights.
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