Court Opinion

ID: 9421478
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:58:26.764865+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:30.594633
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Douglas,
with whom The Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Black concur,
dissenting.
The Court has now come full circle. In Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U. S. 88, 102, we struck down a state ban on picketing on the ground that “the dissemination of information concerning the facts of a labor dispute must be regarded as within that area of free discussion that is guaranteed by the Constitution.” Less than one year later, we held that the First Amendment protected organi*296zational picketing on a factual record which cannot be distinguished from the one now before us. A. F. of L. v. Swing, 312 U. S. 321. Of course, we have always recognized that picketing has aspects which make it more than speech. Bakery Drivers Local v. Wohl, 315 U. S. 769, 776-777 (concurring opinion). That difference underlies our decision in Giboney v. Empire Storage & Ice Co., 336 U. S. 490. There, picketing was an essential part of "a single and integrated course of conduct, which was in violation of Missouri’s valid law.” Id., at 498. And see Labor Board v. Virginia Power Co., 314 U. S. 469, 477-478. We emphasized that “there was clear danger, imminent and immediate, that unless restrained, appellants would succeed in making [the state] policy a dead letter . . . .” 336 U. S., at 503. Speech there was enjoined because it was an inseparable part of conduct which the State constitutionally could and did regulate.
But where, as here, there is no rioting, no mass picketing, no violence, no disorder, no fisticuffs, no coercion— indeed nothing but speech- — the principles announced in Thornhill and Swing should give the advocacy of one side of a dispute First Amendment protection.
The retreat began when, in Teamsters Union v. Hanke, 339 U. S. 470, four members of the Court announced that all picketing could be prohibited if a state court decided that that picketing violated the State’s public policy. The retreat became a rout in Plumbers Union v. Graham, 345 U. S. 192. It was only the “purpose” of the picketing which was relevant. The state court’s characterization of the picketers’ “purpose” had been made well-nigh conclusive. Considerations of the proximity of picketing to conduct which the State could control or prevent were abandoned, and no longer was it necessary for the state court’s decree to be narrowly drawn to prescribe a specific evil. Id., at 201-205 (dissenting opinion).
*297Today, the Court signs the formal surrender. State courts and state legislatures cannot fashion blanket prohibitions on all picketing. But, for practical purposes, the situation now is as it was when Senn v. Tile Layers Union, 301 U. S. 468, was decided. State courts and state legislatures are free to decide whether to permit or suppress any particular picket line for any reason other than a blanket policy against all picketing. I would adhere to the principle announced in Thornhill. I would adhere to the result reached in Swing. I would return to the test enunciated in Giboney — that this form of expression can be regulated or prohibited only to the extent that it forms an essential part of a course of conduct which the State can regulate or prohibit. I would reverse the judgment below.