Opinion ID: 442939
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Hiatus Order

Text: 18 The right to engage in peaceful primary picketing is protected by both the first amendment, Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88, 102, 60 S.Ct. 736, 744, 84 L.Ed. 1093 (1940); NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886, 909, 102 S.Ct. 3409, 3424-25, 73 L.Ed.2d 1215 (1982); and the National Labor Relations Act, see 29 U.S.C. Secs. 157, 158(b)(4)(B) (1982). We have recently emphasized that such picketing, as a mixture of speech and conduct, may be enjoined only  'if [the injunction] furthers an important or substantial governmental interest; if the governmental interest is unrelated to the suppression of free expression; and if the incidental restriction on alleged First Amendment freedoms is no greater than essential to the furtherance of that interest.'  Miller v. United Food & Commercial Workers Union, 708 F.2d 467, 472 (9th Cir.1983) (quoting United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367, 377, 88 S.Ct. 1673, 1679, 20 L.Ed.2d 672 (1968). For two reasons, we cannot uphold the district court's hiatus injunction. 19 Under Miller, preventing the perpetuation of unlawful secondary activity qualifies as an important governmental interest. Id. at 471. That objective accordingly can serve in the proper situation to justify a hiatus in all picketing. Id. A prerequisite to a hiatus injunction, however, is that the district court make findings of fact specifically directed toward its decision to halt all picketing. Id. We must be provided with fact findings that inform us whether the hiatus injunction of primary picketing will help prevent the perpetuation of the effects of the unlawful secondary boycott. Without that information, we cannot fulfill our function of review. 20 The district court's decision does not meet the requirement. The district court made a conclusory finding that without [a hiatus injunction] the effects of prior illegal activities will be perpetuated. But the court did not provide supporting findings. Despite our suggestions in Miller, see id. at 471, there are no findings to inform us whether a hiatus injunction was necessary to prevent continued lawful picketing from serving as a signal for the continuation of the unlawful secondary activities, or whether the order was necessary because of the dire financial problems created by the unlawful activities. 21 Indeed, the district court's comments suggest to us that the order may have been based on improper considerations. The district court explained: 22 I feel there is no alternative. An order by me limiting picketing to only those gates legally picketed would be no more than a reiteration of what respondents' current legal obligation is, and would in my judgment be ineffective as this is an obligation that they have thus far been unable to meet. 23 The thrust of the district court's statement is that to enjoin only secondary picketing would simply be to order the Unions to obey the law. But in the ordinary case, the purposes of sections 10(l ) and 8(b)(4) are perfectly well served by an injunction requiring the offending Unions to obey the law. See Potter v. Houston Gulf Coast Building Trades Council, 482 F.2d 837, 841 (5th Cir.1973). It is only in the exceptional case that primary picketing may be enjoined, preferably only after an injunction limited to the secondary picketing has been tried and failed. Id. No such limited relief was attempted here. 24 A second prerequisite to the issuance of a hiatus order is that the district court carefully tailor its injunction in order to permit the maximum amount of legitimate activity while erasing the illegal ... conduct and its deleterious impact. Miller, 708 F.2d at 471. The hiatus order fails to meet this requirement, for the district court did not consider whether the residual effects of unlawful picketing could be dissipated by ordering the Unions to inform employees of neutral employers that the Unions no longer objected to their returning to work. See Potter, 482 F.2d at 841. 25 The general contractors argue that the court's failure to consider the less restrictive alternative was not error because the Unions did not raise the point below. We have no quarrel with the rule that we will not ordinarily entertain issues not raised before the district court; it is essential to a rational system of appeals. Yet this is not an instance where that rule applies. The Unions most certainly presented to the district court their argument that a hiatus injunction of otherwise lawful picketing would violate the first amendment. The normal first amendment imperative is that speech may not be enjoined. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. at 909, 102 S.Ct. at 3424-25; Organization for a Better Austin v. Keefe, 402 U.S. 415, 419-20, 91 S.Ct. 1575, 1578-79, 29 L.Ed.2d 1 (1971). An exception for incidental restraints on speech is permitted only when no less restrictive alternative would accomplish the governmental purpose. Miller, 708 F.2d at 472 (quoting O'Brien, 391 U.S. at 377, 88 S.Ct. at 1679). It is the duty of those who attempt to enjoin speech to show that the situation falls within the exceptions to normal first amendment protection. Organization for a Better Austin, 402 U.S. at 419, 91 S.Ct. at 1578. The burden in the district court was therefore on the NLRB, not the Unions, to show that the hiatus injunction was the least restrictive means of remedying the residual effects of unlawful picketing. The NLRB's failure to meet this burden is therefore properly urged here as a necessary component of the Union's first amendment case. 26 The hiatus injunction impinges upon first amendment interests. It has not been established by specific findings that the injunction furthers the governmental interest in dissipating the effects of unlawful secondary activity, nor that it is the least restrictive means of accomplishing that goal. It therefore fails to meet the requirements established by Miller for such a restriction of protected expression and cannot stand. 27 REVERSED AND REMANDED. 28