Schmid v. Sonoma Clean Power

In an unpublished memorandum, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of an electricity customer’s constitutional claims concerning Sonoma Clean Power Authority’s (SCPA) procedure for automatically enrolling customers. SCPA is a not-for-profit public agency run by municipalities in northern California; it <a href="https://sonomacleanpower.org/about-scp/">says</a> it provides “cleaner electricity at a competitive rates from sources like solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower.” The Ninth Circuit said the customer’s First Amendment claims for compelled contribution to speech and compelled association or disassociation failed because “he has not been compelled to do anything.” The Ninth Circuit said that a Fourteenth Amendment economic substantive due process claim would fail even if the automatic enrollment procedures constituted a deprivation of the plaintiff’s liberty interest in contracting with the other electricity service provider because the government’s goals in establishing the regulatory framework in which SCPA operated—including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing energy consumption—were legitimate legislative purposes.