Court Opinion

ID: 9426169
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:17:01.155499+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:59.400585
License: Public Domain

Me. Justice Stewart,
with whom Mr. Justice Marshall and Mr. Justice Powell join, dissenting.
In 1948 Congress repealed § 11 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 47 Stat. 72, 29 U. S. C. § 111 (1946 ed.), which provided a right to a jury trial in cases of contempt arising under that Act, and added § 3692 to Title 18 of the United States Code, broadly guaranteeing a jury trial “[i]n all cases of contempt arising under the laws of the United States governing the issuance of injunctions or restraining orders in any case involving or growing out of a labor dispute.” I cannot agree with the Court's conclusion that this congressional action was without any significance and that § 3692 does not apply to any contempt proceedings involving injunctions that may be issued pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 151 et seq. Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment before us.
The contempt proceedings in the present case arose out of a dispute between Local 21 of the International Typographical Union and the San Rafael Independent Jour*482nal. Local 21 represents the Independent Journal's composing room employees. Following expiration of the old collective-bargaining agreement between Local 21 and the Independent Journal, negotiations for a new agreement reached an impasse. As a result, Local 21 instituted strike action against the Independent Journal. See San Francisco Typographical Union No. 21, 188 N. L. R. B. 673, enforced, 465 F. 2d 53 (CA9). The primary strike escalated into illegal secondary boycott activity, in which four other unions, including the petitioner Local 70, participated. The National Labor Relations Board, through its Regional Director, obtained an injunction pursuant to § 10 (l) of the National Labor Relations Act, as added, 61 Stat. 149, and as amended, 29 IT. S. C. § 160 (l), to bring a halt to that secondary activity. When the proscribed secondary conduct continued, apparently in willful disobedience of the § 10 (l) injunction, criminal contempt proceedings were instituted. See ante, at 456-457.
Section 3692 unambiguously guaranteees a right to a jury trial in such criminal contempt proceedings. The section provides in pertinent part:
“In all cases of contempt arising under the laws of the United States governing the issuance of injunctions or restraining orders in any case involving or growing out of a labor dispute, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the contempt shall have been committed.”
Section 3692 thus expressly applies to more than just those cases of contempt arising under the Norris-LaGuardia Act. By its own terms the section encompasses all cases of contempt arising under any of the several laws of the United States governing the issuance of injunctions in cases of a “labor dispute.” Section 10 (7) of *483the National Labor Relations Act, which authorized the injunction issued by the District Court, is, in the context of this case, most assuredly one of those laws.
Section 10 (i) requires the Board’s regional official to petition the appropriate district court for injunctive relief pending final Board adjudication when he has “reasonable cause” to believe that a labor organization or its agents have engaged in certain specified unfair labor practices.1 Although not all unfair labor practices potentially subject to § 10 (l) injunctions need arise out of a “labor dispute,” both the primary strike and the secondary activity in this case concerned the “terms or conditions of employment” of Local 21 members. Thus, the injunction and subsequent contempt proceedings clearly involved a “labor dispute” as that term is defined in the Norris-LaGuardia Act and the National Labor Relations Act.2 Accordingly, § 10 (l) is here a law govérning the issuance of an injunction in *484a case growing out of a labor dispute, and the criminal contempt proceedings against the petitioners clearly-come within the explicit reach of § 3692.3
There is nothing in the rather meager legislative history of § 3692 to indicate that, despite the comprehensive language of the section, Congress intended that it was to apply only to injunctions covered by the NorrisLaGuardia Act. The revisers did not say that § 3692 was intended to be merely a recodification of § 11 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act.4 Rather, the revisers said that the section was “based on” § 11 and then noted without additional comment the change in language from reference to specific sections of Norris-LaGuardia to the more inclusive “laws of the United States . . . .” H. R. Rep. No. 304, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., A176. In contrast, although the recodification of 18 U. S. C. § 402, dealing with contempts constituting crimes, was also “based on” prior law, the revisers specifically noted that “[i]n transferring these sections to this title and in consolidating them numerous changes of phraseology were *485necessary which do not, however, change their meaning or substance.” H. R. Rep. No. 304, supra, at A30; 18 U. S. C., p. 4192. The brief legislative history of § 3692 is, accordingly, completely consistent with the plain meaning of the words of that section.
Nothing in § 10 (?), or in any other provision of the National Labor Relations Act, requires that § 3692 be given any different meaning in cases involving injunctions issued pursuant to the Act. To be sure, § 10 (?) provides that, upon the filing of a Board petition for a temporary injunction, “the district court shall have jurisdiction to grant such injunctive relief or temporary restraining order as it deems just and proper, notwithstanding any other provision of law . . . .” But requiring a jury trial prior to finding a union or union member in criminal contempt for violation of a § 10 (?) injunction is entirely compatible with that provision. Although such a reading of § 3692 provides procedural protection to the alleged contemnor, it in no way limits the jurisdiction of the district court to grant an injunction at the request of the Board.
Similarly, § 10 (h) does not indicate a congressional intent to eliminate the jury trial requirement for criminal contempts arising from disobedience of injunctions issued pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act.5 That *486section provides in part that “[w]hen granting appropriate temporary relief or a restraining order, . . . the jurisdiction of courts sitting in equity shall not be limited by the Act entitled ‘An Act to amend the Judicial Code and to define and limit the jurisdiction of courts sitting in equity, and for other purposes,’ approved March 23, 1932 (U. S. C., Supp. VII, title 29, secs. 101-115).” Although § 10 (h) thus cites parenthetically all the sections of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, including § ll’s jury trial provision, which was codified at 29 U. S. C. § 111, it does so solely as an additional means of identifying the Act. Substantively § 10 (h), like § 10 (l), provides only that the jurisdiction of equity courts shall not be limited by the Norris-LaGuardia Act. But NorrisLaGuardia, as its title indicates, was enacted to limit jurisdiction “and for other purposes.” Section 11, upon which § 3692 was based, was not concerned with jurisdiction; it provided procedural protections to alleged contemnors, one of the Act’s “other purposes.”
In contrast, when Congress provided for the issuance of injunctions during national emergencies as part of the Taft-Hartley Act, 29 U. S. C. §§ 176-180, it did not merely state that the jurisdiction of district courts under those circumstances is not limited by Norris-LaGuardia. Rather, it provided simply and broadly that all of the provisions of that Act are inapplicable. 29 U. S. C. § 178 (b).6
*487If, contrary to the above discussion, there is any ambiguity about § 3692, it should nonetheless be read as extending a right to a jury trial in the criminal contempt proceedings now before us under the firmly established canon of statutory construction mandating that any ambiguity concerning criminal statutes is to be resolved in favor of the accused. See, e. g., United States v. Bass, 404 U. S. 336, 347; Rewis v. United States, 401 U. S. 808, 812; Smith v. United States, 360 U. S. 1, 9. On the other hand, there is no sound policy argument for limiting the scope of § 3692. A guarantee of the right to a jury trial in cases of criminal contempt for violation of injunctions issued pursuant to § 10 (Z) does not restrict the ability of the Board's regional official to seek, or the power of the District Court to grant, temporary injunctive relief to bring an immediate halt to secondary boycotts and recognitional picketing pending adjudication of unfair labor practice charges before the Board. Nor does it interfere with the authority of the District Court to insure prompt compliance with its injunction through the use of coercive civil contempt sanctions.7 Indeed, *488construing § 3692 as it is written, so as to include this kind of an injunction issued pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act, would not even affect the power of the court to impose criminal contempt sanctions. It would only require that prior to imposition of criminal punishment for violation of a court order the necessary facts must be found by an impartial jury, rather than by the judge whose order has been violated.8
*489In sum, the plain language of § 3692 and the absence of any meaningful contradictory legislative history, together with the established method of construing criminal statutes, require that § 3692 be interpreted to include a right to a jury trial in criminal contempt proceedings for violation of § 10 (i) injunctions. Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

 Section 10(¿), as enacted in 1947, 61 Stat. 149, provided that whenever the Board’s regional official has “reasonable cause” to believe the truth of a charge of illegal secondary boycotting or minority picketing, the official “shall,” on behalf of the Board, petition a district court for appropriate injunctive relief pending final Board adjudication. Once reasonable cause is found, a Board petition for temporary relief under § 10 (l) is mandatory. See S. Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 8, 27. Congress in 1959 added charges of illegal hot cargo agreements and recognitional picketing to the mandatory injunction provision of § 10 (l). 73 Stat. 544.

 “Labor dispute” as defined for the purpose of § 11 of the NorrisLaGuardia Act, upon which § 3692 was based, included “any controversy concerning terms or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment, regardless of whether or not the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee.” 47 Stat. 73. Section 2 (9) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U. S. C. §152 (9), defines “labor dispute” in virtually identical language.

 While the respondent concedes that unfair labor practices often arise out of a “labor dispute,” he argues that the National Labor Relations Act is not essentially a law “governing the issuance of injunctions or restraining orders” in cases “involving or growing out of a labor dispute.” Although it may be true that not all provisions of the Act authorizing restraining orders are properly classified as such laws, it is clear that Congress concluded that at least some provisions were. Otherwise, there would have been no reason for Congress to have specifically exempted the jurisdiction of courts “sitting in equity” under § 10 of the Act from the limitations of Norris-LaGuardia, which apply only in cases involving requests for injunctive relief growing out of a labor dispute. See In re Union Nacional de Trabajadores, 502 F. 2d 113, 118 (CAI).

 Any such intention would be inconsistent with the decision to repeal § 11 and to replace it with a broadly worded provision in the title of the United States Code dealing generally with “Crimes and Criminal Procedure.”

 It may be questioned whether § 10 (h) has any relevance at all to the issue before us. As enacted in 1935, § 10 (h) was concerned solely with the jurisdiction of the courts of appeals (and district courts “if all the . . . courts of appeals to which application may be made are in vacation,” § 10 (e)) to modify and enforce Board orders following an administrative hearing and entry of findings by the Board. Section 10 (h) was retained without significant change at the time of the 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments to the National Labor Relations Act: “Sections 10 (g), (h), and (i) of the present act, concerning the effect upon the Board’s orders of enforcement and review proceedings, making inapplicable the provisions of the *486Norris-LaGuardia Act in proceedings before the courts, were unchanged either by the House bill or by the Senate amendment, and are carried into the conference agreement.” H. R. Conf. Rep. NO'. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. (House Managers’ statement), 57. The section would thus seem at the most to be of limited relevance in determining congressional intent concerning the procedures to be used in district courts issuing and enforcing § 10 (l) injunctions prior to final adjudication of unfair labor practice charges by the Board.

 The principal piece of legislative history offered as evidence of an affirmative congressional intent to free from the requirements of *487Norris-LaGuardia criminal contempt proceedings for violations of a § 10 (l) injunction is a statement by Senator Ball made during debate over the Senator’s proposed amendment to that section. See 93 Cong. Rec. 4834. Particularly in view of the complete absence of any support for Senator Ball’s expansive interpretation of §10 (Z) in the committee and conference reports, see, e. g., S. Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 8, 27; H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess. (House Managers’ statement), 57, that individual expression of opinion is without significant weight in the interpretation of the statute. McCaughn v. Hershey Chocolate Co., 283 U. S. 488, 493-494; Lapina v. Williams, 232 U. S. 78, 90.

 On its face § 3692, which guarantees to “the accused” the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury, in language identical to the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a jury trial in criminal cases, appears to be limited to trials for criminal contempt. That construction is also consistent with the decision of Congress to place *488the provision in Title 18, dealing with crimes and criminal procedure. Moreover, while it is clear that a trial for criminal contempt is an independent proceeding and “no part of the original cause,” Michaelson v. United States ex rel. Chicago, St. P., M. & O. R. Co., 266 U. S. 42, 64, civil contempt proceedings to insure compliance with an injunction are extensions of the original equitable cause of action. See id., at 64r-65. It is therefore arguable that § 10 (l)!s explicit statement that the “jurisdiction” of the district courts shall not be affected by “any other provision of law” renders inapplicable any otherwise relevant statutory requirement of a jury trial for civil contempts. See In re Union Nacional de Trabajadores, 502 F. 2d, at 119-121.

 Although injunctive relief under §§10 (j) and (l) is sought by the Board acting on behalf of the public rather than to vindicate private economic interests, this fact has little significance in considering the policy justifications for requiring a jury trial in criminal contempt proceedings. Regardless of whether the Board or an employer has sought the injunction, in the absence of a jury trial the judge who granted the order will be given complete authority to impose criminal punishment if he finds that his injunction has been deliberately disobeyed. The existence of this unbridled power in district court judges prior to 1932 was one of the principal factors leading to enactment of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, and in particular passage of the § 11 jury trial requirement. See generally A. Cox & D. Bolt, Cases and Materials on Labor Law 75-76 (7th ed.). Accordingly, the accommodation of § 10 (l) and § 3692 “which will give the fullest possible effect to the central purposes of both [statutes],” Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson, 370 U. S. 195, 216 (Brennan, J., dissenting), is to recognize the Board’s power to seek temporary injunctive relief under § 10 (l) without regard to the limitations of Norris-LaGuardia, and to permit the issuing court to coerce *489obedience through civil contempt proceedings. But when the court deems it necessary to impose after-the-fact punishment through criminal contempt proceedings, § 3692 must be read to mean what it says — the accused contemnor has the right to a jury trial. See In re Union Nacional de Trabajadores, supra, at 121.