It was a cold, cloudy day in Woodland.  Local folks were signing my California Cannabis Initiative petition in droves.  

Woodland is a small farm community just north of Sacramento International Airport.  It is situated in Yolo County, where some of the other local treasures are the cities of Davis and West Sacramento.  The entire county is chiefly agricultural.  The population is predominantly Hispanic, laid back, friendly and down to earth.  

I have never attempted to work at that location without permission from the store.  They have generally been quite courteous about letting me fill out the "solicitation" forms as, "California Cannabis Initiative."  I have worked there for about 12 days this year, usually with no issues.  

On Saturday, December 19th, 2009, I worked for a couple of hours when somebody without a name tag approached me.  

"We have a restraining order out on you guys," said the lady.

"And...you are...?" I asked, impersonating David Spade.

"I'm the Store Manager, Joell," she said.

"Restraining order on you guys..." I repeated.  "Who's you guys?"

Joell pointed to my sign.  "We have a restraining order on people trying to legalize maarijuana.  We've been getting complaints, and we got a restraining order on that."

I laughed uproariously. I politely told Joell that one cannot get a restraining order on a ballot measure, or on an idea.  Restraining orders are filed against people.  I let her know that I was aware of a recent injunction, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. James Edward Jefferson, et al.  I am aware that the order restrains Jefferson, a man named Cliff Hoffman, a woman named Marie Roberts as well as their agents, servants, partners, and assigns from collecting signatures, amongst other conduct in front of Wal-Mart. Tellingly, the injunction explicitly exempts retail shopping from the verboten conduct. I told Joell that I do not know these people, therefore the injunction does not cover my conduct.  Common arguments are that our conduct is protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, bolstered by the Pruneyard and Fashion Valley Mall court decisions in California.  

Joell replied that I may encounter police.  That did not concern me.  It was clear that she hadn't the faintest clue about case law, civics, and the boundaries of her authority.  

Joell went away, and I got busy again fielding the hungry signers.  They kept coming that day.  

After maybe another hour or so, Assistant Manager Jason came over to me.  He was relatively friendly, and mentioned the injunction.  He asked my name, so I showed him my ID.  I explained that I was with Keyes Petitioning, and that he may remember my face from before, and that we had spoken at length in person, in the recent past.  

Jason said that he just wanted to make sure I was not one of the individuals named in the injunction, because they had a pattern of roving from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart.  

It was fairly quickly established that I was not named in the injunction, and could stay.  Signing was steady and enthusiastic that day.  The location can sometimes be a bit slow, but there were a lot of Christmas shoppers streaming in.  People were in good moods, probably because they still had time to shop leisurely before the crazy crunch sets in.

A young, friendly cop did eventually show up, but I don't think he was there for me.  It appeared to be a routine matter, because he did not stay long at all.

Joell came back, but was mostly defeated.  "Your table is outside the box,"  she pointed out.  True enough, my table legs were poking outside my designated free speech area an inch or two.  I apologized, and moved the ironing board/table into compliance.  She muttered, "Your sign better not be more than two by three [feet], cause that's on the contract you signed."

I said, "I'm on the calendar for tomorrow, I ask that you honor that."

"I'm getting legal on the phone right  now.  Well see," said Joell.

I plan on going to Wal-Mart at Yolo Polo Plaza in Woodland tomorrow, and collecting a bunch more signatures for California Cannabis Initiative.

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