Court Opinion

ID: 9601037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:35:39.195072+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:48:45.729192
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, J.
I dissent.
In my opinion this case was correctly decided by the District Court of Appeal and the judgment of contempt should be annulled for the reasons set forth in the opinion of that court by Presiding Justice Peters. (82 A.C.A. 491, 186 P.2d 756.) It is here necessary to direct attention only to those considerations that compel me to take issue with the majority opinion of this court.
That opinion holds that the object of the picketing was to limit certain jobs to a closed shop and a closed union and that such an object is unlawful by virtue of James v. Marinship Corp., 25 Cal.2d 721 [155 P.2d 329, 160 A.L.R. 900], In my opinion this holding is based on an erroneous application of that case. The union there had secured through its closed shop contract a monopoly of the jobs in a certain plant, and this court held that a union with such a monopoly cannot close its doors on racial grounds and simultaneously enforce its closed shop contract against those arbitrarily excluded from the union. In the present case petitioners seek, not a monopoly of the jobs available, but only a share of those jobs that they believe they would have had if there had been no discrimination against them. The union in the Marinship case was free to . open its ranks to all. Here a group helpless to open its ranks to all is seeking a share of the available jobs in proportion to its patronage. Rules developed to curb abuses *868of those already in control of the labor market have no application to situations where the moving party is seeking to gain a foothold in the struggle for economic equality. Petitioners are seeking by reasonable methods to discourage discrimination against them. It is unrealistic to compare them with those who sought to couple a closed union with a closed shop for the very purpose of discrimination.
Those racial groups against whom discrimination is practiced may seek economic equality either by demanding that hiring be done without reference to race or color, or by demanding a certain number of jobs for members of their group. The majority opinion holds that economic equality cannot be sought by the second method if picketing is adopted as the means of attaining that objective. In the absence of a statute protecting them from discrimination it is not unreasonable for Negroes to seek economic equality by asking those in sympathy with their aims to help them secure jobs that may be opened to them by the enlistment of such aid. In their struggle for equality the only effective economic weapon Negroes have is the purchasing power they are able to mobilize to induce employers to open jobs to them. (See New Negro Alliance v. Sanitary Grocery Co., 303 U.S. 552, 561 [58 S.Ct. 703, 82 L.Ed. 1012]; Bakery Drivers' Local v. Wohl, 315 U.S. 769, 775 [62 S.Ct. 816, 86 L.Ed. 1178].) There are so few neighborhoods where Negroes can make effective appeals against discrimination that they may reasonably regard the seeking of jobs in neighborhoods where their appeal may be effective the only practical means of combating discrimination against them. In arbitrating the conflicting interests of different groups in society courts should not impose ideal standards on one side when they are powerless to impose similar standards upon the other. Only a clear danger to ^ the community would justify judicial rules that restrict the peaceful mobilization of a group’s economic power to secure economic equality. (See Mr. Justice Brandeis dissenting in Duplex P. P. Co. v. Deering, 254 U.S. 443, 488 [41 S.Ct. 172, 65 L.Ed. 349, 16 A.L.R. 196]; C. S. Smith Met. Market Co. v. Lyons, 16 Cal.2d 389, 403 [106 P.2d 414].) There is no reality in the reasoning that those who seek to secure jobs where they have an opportunity to enlist public support on their behalf are thereby seeking illegal discrimination in their favor, for the fact remains that everywhere they turn for jobs they are likely to encounter the barrier of discrimination.
*869The picketing in this case is directed at persuading Lucky to take action that it may lawfully take on its own initiative. No law prohibits Lucky from discriminating in favor of or against Negroes. It may legally adopt a policy of proportionate hiring. The picketing confronts Lucky with the choice of adopting a policy that is not illegal in itself or risking the loss of patronage that may result from the picketing. Had California adopted a fair employment practices act that prohibited consideration of the race of applicants for jobs, it might be said that the demand for proportional hiring would' be a demand that Lucky violate the law. Neither the Legislature nor the people have adopted such a statute, and I find no implication in the majority opinion that its equivalent exists under the common law of this state. *
It is important to note, apart from the lawfulness of the objective, that the picketing in this case has none of the nonspeech characteristics that would justify an injunction. It is established by numerous United States Supreme Court decisions that picketing is protected as an exercise of free speech. (Cafeteria Emp. Union, Local 302 v. Angelos, 320 U.S. 293 [64 S.Ct. 126, 88 L.Ed. 58]; Bakery Drivers' Local v. Wohl, 315 U.S. 769 [62 S.Ct. 816, 86 L.Ed. 1178]; Carpenters' Union v. Ritter's Cafe, 315 U.S. 722 [62 S.Ct. 807, 86 L.Ed. 1143]; A. F. of L. v. Swing, 312 U.S. 321 [61 S.Ct. 568, 85 L.Ed 855]; Milk Wagon Drivers' Union v. Meadowmoor Dairies, 312 U.S. 287 [61 S.Ct. 552, 85 L.Ed. 836, 132 A.L.R. 1200]; Carlson v. California, 310 U.S. 106 [60 S.Ct. 746, 84 L.Ed. 1104]; Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88 [60 S.Ct. 736, 84 L.Ed. 1093]; Senn v. Tile Layers' Union, 301 U.S. 468 [57 S.Ct. 857, 81 L.Ed. 1229].) As such the states must deal with it as a protected right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Within the free speech guaranty, traditional modes of communication are protected unless a clear and present danger of serious substantive evil is shown. (Thomas v. Collins, 323 U.S. 516 [65 S.Ct. 315, 89 L.Ed. 430]; Bridges v. California, 314 U.S. 252 [62 S.Ct. 190, 86 L.Ed. 192].) Although picketing has not been so identified with other forms of speech that its permissible limits are governed by the same tests (Carpenters' Union v. Ritter's Cafe, supra, 315 U.S. 722; Milk Wagon Drivers' Union v. Meadowmoor Dairies, 312 U.S. 287 [61 S.Ct. 552, 85 L.Ed. 836, 132 A.L.R. 1200]), a state may not deny it protection as free speech when the elements that* *870differentiate it from other forms of speech are not present. (See Armstrong, Where Are We Going With Picketing, 36 Cal.L.Rev. 1, 30-40).
In recognition of the fact that picketing often entails more than speech, the United States Supreme Court has allowed states to place limitations on picketing as they could not on traditional modes of communication. In these decisions the Supreme Court has been concerned in the main with the evils attending certain forms of picketing. Thus violent or untruthful picketing is not protected. (Milk Wagon Drivers' Union v. Meadowmoor Dairies, supra, 312 U.S. 287; see Cafeteria Emp. Union, Local 302 v. Angelos, supra, 320 U.S. 293, 295; Magill Bros. v. Building Service etc. Union, 20 Cal.2d 506 [127 P.2d 542].) Again, special circumstances may justify a state’s limiting the places where and the persons against whom picketing may be carried on. (Carpenters' Union v. Ritter's Cafe, supra, 315 U.S. 722.) A state may declare, for instance, that the conscription of neutrals, dissociated from the dispute involved, may not be enforced by picketing those neutrals. (Carpenters' Union v. Ritter's Cafe, supra, 315 U.S. 722, 728.) Since picketing is a form of protected free speech, some greater evil or more imminent danger must be found to justify its suppression than would be required to justify curtailment of action protected only by the due process clause independent of the First Amendment. (See Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 639 [63 S.Ct. 1178, 87 L.Ed 1628, 147 A.L.R. 674].)
A forceful advocate of the view that picketing is not free speech has discussed the nature of picketing as follows: “Picketing is the marching to and fro before given premises with a banner usually containing assertions that the picketed person is ‘unfair to organized labor,’ or that his employees are on ‘strike.’ Sometimes the picket speaks these very same words or adds further assertions. This, substantially, is labor’s method of stating its side of the controversy. Rarely, if ever, does labor inform the public of all the differences which exist between it and the employer. Nor, indeed, can labor be expected to do so since few will stop to read or listen. Thus the picket appeals basically to sympathy; sometimes, however, he appeals to the customer’s sense of embarrassment. Often, too, the picket depends upon the observance by union members of the rule—either formally embodied or tacitly understood— forbidding the crossing of picket lines. Another purpose of *871the picket is to inform, those delivering goods to or taking goods from, the picketed establishment that it is on the union’s unfair list. In the Ritter's Cafe case the cafe employees had no quarrel with Ritter over the terms and conditions of their own employment; they refused, nevertheless, to cross the picket line established by the carpenters’ and painters’ unions, and furthermore, truckmen refused to make deliveries necessary to Ritter’s business.” (Teller, Picketing and Free Speech, 56 Harv.L.Rev. 180, 201.) Virtually none of the nonspeech • elements of picketing here described are present in this case.
If picketing does not contain substantial nonspeech elements and is primarily conducted to disseminate information, limitations that differentiate picketing from other forms of speech should not be invoked. The picketing here is of this type. The facts of the dispute were fully presented by the banners. Since the picketing was not being carried on by a labor union, no generally observed rules of labor unions against crossing picket lines were brought into play and no deliveries were interfered with. All that was involved in this case was an orderly appeal to the public coupled with a clear and truthful statement of the facts of the dispute. (See New Negro Alliance v. Sanitary Grocery Co., supra, 303 U.S. 552.) Under such circumstances the unlawful objective doctrine may not be invoked to differentiate picketing from traditional modes of communication. To do so unreasonably interferes with petitioners’ right to publicize the facts of their dispute. (See James v. Marinship Corp., supra, 25 Cal.2d 721, 730; A. F. of L. v. Swing, supra, 312 U.S. 321, 325.)
Petitioner’s application for a rehearing was denied November 29,1948. Carter, J., and Traynor, J., voted for a rehearing.