Political candidates have the right to gather nominating signatures outside grocery stores, the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a case that is likely to affect a broad segment of commercial properties.
Friday’s ruling is the first major decision on the topic in Massachusetts since 1983, when the court affirmed the right of candidates to collect signatures at large shopping malls.
Last week’s decision stems from a lawsuit filed by former Governor’s Council candidate Steven Glovsky, who was asked to leave a Roche Bros. supermarket in Westwood while campaigning in 2012. Glovsky sued the Wellesley-based chain, claiming civil rights violations.
Lawyers for Roche Bros. argued that the 5-acre shopping center in Westwood does not fill the role of a traditional downtown like the North Shore Mall, the property that was the center of the 1983 ruling and was at the time the state’s largest shopping mall.
Justices noted that Roche Bros. is the only supermarket in Westwood and that candidates require personal contact with voters to gather nominating signatures.
"In many rural and suburban communities, the local supermarket may serve as one of the few places in which an individual soliciting signatures would be able to approach members of the public in large numbers," the justices wrote in the majority decision.
The lone dissenting opinion came from Justice Robert Cordy, who argued that there is a clear distinction between large shopping malls and freestanding supermarkets.
"Supermarkets that lack common spaces designed to facilitate congregation and encourage visitors with varied agendas fail to replicate the historic downtown district," Cordy wrote.
A wide segment of commercial property owners and retailers will have to take a look at their policies in the wake of the ruling, said Edward Hershfield, an attorney with Brown Rudnick LLP in Boston.
"Everybody except the smallest or most specialized retailers are going to be forced to allow this to happen. If they don’t, they run the risk of being sued," Hershfield said.
