Court Opinion

ID: 9427190
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:19:59.594659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:05.352311
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Powell,
concurring.
Although I join the Court’s opinion, Mr. Justice Black-mun’s concurrence prompts me to add a word as to the “no-man’s land” discussion with respect to trespassory picketing. Mr. Justice Blackmun, relying on the amicus brief of the National Labor Relations Board, observes that “there is a practicable means of getting the issue of trespassory picketing before the Board in a timely fashion without danger of violence,” ante, at 209, if the union — -having been requested to leave the property — files a§8 (a)(1) charge.
With all respect, this optimistic view overlooks the realities of the situation. Trespass upon private property by pickets, *213bo a greater degree than isolated trespass, is usually organized, sustained, and sometimes obstructive — without initial violence — of the target business and annoying to members of the public who wish to patronize that business. The “danger of violence” is inherent in many — though certainly not all— situations of sustained trespassory picketing. One eannot predict whether or when it may occur, or its degree. It is because of these factors that, absent the availability of an equivalent remedy under the National Labor Relations Act, a state court should have the authority to protect the public and private interests by granting preliminary relief.
In the context of trespassory picketing not otherwise viola-tive of the Act, the Board has no comparable authority. If a §8 (a)(1) charge is filed, nothing is likely to happen “in a timely fashion.” The Board cannot issue, or obtain from the federal courts, a restraining order directed at the picketing. And it may take weeks for the General Counsel to decide whether to issue a complaint. Meanwhile, the “no-man’s land” prevents all recourse to the courts, and is an open invitation to self-help. I am unwilling to believe that Congress intended, by its silence in the Aet, to create a situation where there is no forum to which .the parties may turn for orderly interim relief in the face of a potentially explosive situation.*
*214I do not minimize the possibility that the Board may find that trespassory activity under certain circumstances is necessary to facilitate the exercise of § 7 rights by employees of the target employer. See NLRB v. Babcock & Wilcox Co., 351 U. S. 105 (1956); Central Hardware Co. v. NLRB, 407 U. S. 539 (1972). The Union’s conduct in this case, however, involved a publicity campaign maintained by nonemployees and directed at the general public. Such “area standards” trespassory picketing is certainly not at the core of the Act’s protective ambit. In any event, it is open to the Board upon the issuance of a complaint to seek temporary relief under § 10 (j) of the Act, 29 U. S. C. § 160 (j), against the employer’s interference with § 7 rights. Cf. Capital Service, Inc. v. NLRB, 347 U. S. 501 (1954). Moreover, it is not an unreasonable assumption that state courts will be mindful of the determination of an expert federal agency that there is probable cause to believe that conduct restrained by state process is protected under the Act. But I find no warrant in the Act to compel the employer to endure the creation, especially by nonemployees, of a temporary easement on his property pending the outcome of the General Counsel’s action on a charge.
In sum, I do not agree with Me. Justice Blackmun that “the logical corollary of the Court’s reasoning” in its opinion today is that state-court jurisdiction is pre-empted forthwith upon the filing of a charge by the union. I would not join the Court’s opinion if I thought it fairly could be read to that effect.

It is true that under this Court’s decisions, state courts -are not precluded from providing relief against actual or threatened violence. But in light of the “danger of violence” inherent in many instances of sustained trespassory picketing, relief often may come too late to prevent interference with the operation of the target business. Cf. People v. Bush, 39 N. Y. 2d 529, 349 N. E. 2d 832 (1976). Moreover, as Mr. Justice Clark noted for the Court in Linn v. Plant Guard Workers, 383 U. S. 53, 64 n. 6 (1966), “[t]he fact that the Board has no- authority to grant effective relief aggravates the State’s -concern since the refusal to redress an otherwise actionable wrong creates disrespect for the law and encourages the victim to take matters into his own hands.” The "imminent threat of violence [that] exists whenever an employer is required to resort to self-help in order to vindicate his property rights,” has prompted at least one state court to retain jurisdiction to enjoin trespassory picket*214ing even after the filing of an unfair labor practice charge with the Board. May Department Stores Co. v. Teamsters, 64 Ill. 2d 153, 162-163, 355 N. E. 2d 7, 10-11 (1976).