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Politics and Government News
Ellie Roth

Candidate’s gym membership termination upheld by Minnesota appeals court

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The Minnesota Court of Appeals sided Monday with Life Time Fitness over a candidate for governor in a free-speech case. 

Hugh McTavish
Dr. Hugh McTavish was the Independence-Alliance Party candidate for governor in 2022.
Courtesy of Hugh McTavish

Life Time Fitness terminated Hugh McTavish’s membership in 2022 after the third-party candidate refused to remove campaign leaflets he had left on cars parked at the gym’s Bloomington facility.

McTavish sued Life Time for breach of membership contract and alleged Life Time violated his First Amendment rights. The Court of Appeals left intact a lower court ruling in Life Time’s favor.

McTavish argued he could use Life Time’s facilities if he paid for them. But Life Time countered that its membership agreement allows termination for conduct Life Time deems contrary to the gym’s best interest. McTavish said he was told the local Life Time manager that the leafleting violated a city ordinance.

The ruling distinguishes between the ability of a government entity and a private business to restrict political speech. 

“More important here, whether the city has an ordinance that restricts political speech is not relevant to Life Time’s right as a private entity to restrict political speech on its premises,” the appeals panel wrote. 

The ruling also notes that the gym gave McTavish the ability to retrieve the leaflets prior to taking membership action against him.

McTavish received less than one percent of the vote in the 2022 election running under the Independence-Alliance Party banner.