Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Alabama_State_Federation_Of_Labor_Local_Union_N103_United_Brotherhood_Of_Carpenters_And_Joiners_Of_America_v._Adory/Opinion_of_the_Court
Timestamp: 2017-11-18 15:49:19
Document Index: 9011966

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 7', '§ 15', '§ 15', '§ 7', '§ 7', '§ 151', '§ 7', '§ 15', '§ 15', '§ 15', '§ 15']

Alabama State Federation Of Labor Local Union N103 United Brotherhood Of Carpenters And Joiners Of America v. Adory/Opinion of the Court - Wikisource, the free online library
Alabama State Federation Of Labor Local Union N103 United Brotherhood Of Carpenters And Joiners Of America v. Adory/Opinion of the Court
< Alabama State Federation Of Labor Local Union N103 United Brotherhood Of Carpenters And Joiners Of America v. Adory
Alabama State Federation Of Labor Local Union N103 United Brotherhood Of Carpenters And Joiners Of America v. Adory by Harlan F. Stone
899389Alabama State Federation Of Labor Local Union N103 United Brotherhood Of Carpenters And Joiners Of America v. Adory — Opinion of the CourtHarlan F. Stone
Argued: April 3, 4, 1945. --- Decided: June 11, 1945
After a trial upon a stipulated statement of facts, certain affidavits and the testimony of witnesses, the circuit court held the Act as a whole, and specifically § 7 of the Act, to be valid and constitutional. It declined as 'inappropriate' to make declarations as to the validity of §§ 15 and 16. On appeal, petitioners assigning as error the circuit court's failure to pass upon the constitutionality of §§ 15 and 16, and to declare those sections and § 7 unconstitutional, the state supreme court held all three sections valid and constitutional. Ala.Sup., 18 So.2d 810. We granted certiorari, 324 U.S. 703, 65 S.Ct. 191, upon a petition which presented the contentions [1] that §§ 7 and 16 impose a prior general restraint on petitioners' freedom of speech and assembly guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution and conflict with the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 151 et seq., by depriving them of rights under it; that §§ 7, 15 and 16 are an arbitrary and unreasonable exercise of the state police power which denies petitioners due process and equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment; and that §§ 15 and 16 are so ambiguous and uncertain in their requirements as to deny petitioners due process of law.
The requirements for a justiciable case or controversy are no less strict in a declaratory judgment proceeding than in any other type of suit. Nashville, C. & St. L.R. Co. v. Wallace, 288 U.S. 249, 53 S.Ct. 345, 77 L.Ed. 730, 87 A.L.R. 1191; Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Haworth, 300 U.S. 227, 57 S.Ct. 461, 87 L.Ed. 617, 108 A.L.R. 1000; Maryland Casualty Co. v. Pacific Coal & Oil Co., 312 U.S. 270, 273, 61 S.Ct. 510, 512, 85 L.Ed. 826; Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. v. Huffman, 319 U.S. 293, 299, 300, 63 S.Ct. 1070, 1073, 1074, 87 L.Ed. 1407; Coffman v. Breeze Corps., 323 U.S. 316, 65 S.Ct. 298. This Court is without power to give advisory opinions. Hayburn's Case, 2 Dall. 409, 1 L.Ed. 436; United States v. Evans, 213 U.S. 297, 301, 29 S.Ct. 507, 508, 53 L.Ed. 803; Muskrat v. United States, 219 U.S. 346, 31 S.Ct. 250, 55 L.Ed. 246; Stearns v. Wood, 236 U.S. 75, 35 .Ct. 229, 59 L.Ed. 475; Coffman v. Breeze Corps., supra. It has long been its considered practice not to decide abstract, hypothetical or contingent questions, Giles v. Harris, 189 U.S. 475, 486, 23 S.Ct. 639, 642, 47 L.Ed. 909; District of Columbia v. Brooke, 214 U.S. 138, 152, 29 S.Ct. 560, 564, 53 L.Ed. 941; Anniston Mfg. Co. v. Davis, 301 U.S. 337, 355, 57 S.Ct. 816, 824, 81 L.Ed. 1143; Electric Bond & Share Co. v. Securities and Exchange Commission, 303 U.S. 419, 58 S.Ct. 678, 82 L.Ed. 936, 115 A.L.R. 105; United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co., 311 U.S. 377, 423, 61 S.Ct. 291, 306, 85 L.Ed. 243, or to decide any constitutional question in advance of the necessity for its decision, Charles River Bridge v. Proprietors of Warren Bridge, 11 Pet. 420, 553, 9 L.Ed. 773; Trade Mark Cases, 100 U.S. 82, 96, 25 L.Ed. 550; Liverpool, N.Y. & P.S.S.C.o. v. Immigration Com'rs, 113 U.S. 33, 39, 5 S.Ct. 352, 355, 28 L.Ed. 899; Burton v. United States, 196 U.S. 283, 295, 25 S.Ct. 243, 245, 49 L.Ed. 482; Arkansas Fuel Oil Co. v. State of Louisiana, 304 U.S. 197, 202, 58 S.Ct. 832, 834, 82 L.Ed. 1287, or to formulate a rule of constitutional law broader than is required by the precise facts to which it is to be applied, Liverpool, N.Y. & P.S.S.C.o. v. Immigration Com'rs, supra, 113 U.S. at page 39, 5 S.Ct. at page 355, 28 L.Ed. 899; White v. Johnson, 282 U.S. 367, 371, 51 S.Ct. 115, 75 L.Ed. 388; Allen-Bradley Local v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 315 U.S. 740, 746, 747, 62 S.Ct. 820, 824, 86 L.Ed. 1154, or to decide any constitutional question except with reference to the particular facts to which it is to be applied, Hall v. Geiger-Jones Co., 242 U.S. 539, 554, 37 S.Ct. 217, 222, 61 L.Ed. 480, L.R.A.1917F, 514, Ann.Cas.1917C, 643; Corporation Comm. v. Lowe, 281 U.S. 431, 438, 50 S.Ct. 397, 399, 74 L.Ed. 945; Continental Baking Co. v. Woodring, 286 U.S. 352, 372, 52 S.Ct. 595, 601, 76 L.Ed. 1155, 81 A.L.R. 1402; Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Grosjean, 301 U.S. 412, 429, 430, 57 S.Ct. 772, 779, 81 L.Ed. 1193, 112 A.L.R. 293.
To say that the statute would be unconstitutional if applied to such exactions is not to say that the section cannot constitutionally apply to exactions which the legislature could have thought coercive, oppressive or otherwise unjust. It is not denied that labor organizations have indulged in such practices, and obviously we canno assume in the face of the constitutional objections that they do not, or that the state could not make § 15 applicable to them. As the record presents no concrete case to which petitioners' contentions as to § 15 apply, we are unable to say whether its application in any given case not now before us would or would not be constitutional. Liverpool, N.Y. & P.S.S.C.o. v. Immigration Comm'rs, supra, 113 U.S. at page 39, 5 S.Ct. at page 355, 28 L.Ed. 899; Barker Painting Co. v. Local No. 734, 281 U.S. 462, 463, 464, 50 S.Ct. 356, 74 L.Ed. 967. Determination of these questions as well as the proper construction of the section which is challenged as vague and indefinite must await its application to some specific state of facts.
^1 Under the view we take of the case it is unnecessary to determine whether petitioners have properly raised in the state courts the federal question which they urge here with respect to §§ 15 and 16.
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