Delano Farms Company, Plaintiffs and Appellants v. California Table Grape Commission, Defendant and Respondent.

Summary

The California Supreme Court held that promotional messages funded by assessments under the Ketchum Act constitute government speech because the Legislature prescribed the basic message and retained sufficient responsibility, oversight, and control over the Commission. Accordingly, requiring grape growers to subsidize that speech did not violate the state Constitution's free speech guarantee, and the plaintiffs failed to show that the scheme independently prevented them from speaking or falsely attributed the Commission's views to them. The court affirmed the Court of Appeal's judgment.