West Towne Mall - 1980s

1980s

West Towne and East Towne malls were at the center of a mid-1980s Wisconsin Supreme Court case. In Jacobs (the mall's owner at the time) v. Major, an anti-nuclear dance group, called the Nu Parable dancers, was barred from performing a dance which ended in a "die-in" on the mall's property. At issue was the right of non-consensual use of private property for freedom of speech purposes. In 1987, the Wisconsin Supreme court ruled 4–3 in favor of the mall owner's right to exclude Nu Parable from both malls.