Court Opinion

ID: 9419141
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:46:38.186027+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:41:55.794702
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stone,
concurring.
As I think it clear that the indictment fails to charge an offense under the Sherman Act, as it has been inter-r preted and applied by this Court, I find no occasion to consider the impact of the Norris-LaGuardia Act on the definition of participants in a labor dispute in the Clayton Act, as construed by this Court in Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering, 254 U. S. 443—an application of the Norris-LaGuardia Act which is not free from doubt and which some of my brethren sharply challenge.
The indictment is for a conspiracy to promote by peaceful means a local “jurisdictional” strike in St. Louis, Missouri. Its aim is to determine whether the United Brotherhood of Carpenters or the International Association of Machinists, both labor organizations affiliated with the American' Federation of Labor, shall be permitted to install certain machinery on the premises of AnheuserBusch, Inc. in St. Louis. It appears that AnheuserBusch brews beer and manufactures other products which it ships to points outside the state. It also uses supplies and building materials which are shipped to it from points outside the state. Borsari Tank Corporation is about to construct for Anheuser-Busch upon its premises a building for its use in brewing beer. L. O. Stocker Company has contracted and intends to construct an office building upon land of Anheuser-Busch adjacent to its brewery and leased by it to the Gaylord Container Corporation, a manufacturer of paper and cardboard containers which it ships in interstate commerce. It is al*238leged that both Borsari and Stocker will require and use in the construction of the buildings, materials to be shipped from points outside the state to the building sites on or adjacent to the Anheuser-Busch premises.
The indictment charges that pursuant to the conspiracy to enforce the jurisdictional demands appellees, who are officers or representatives of the Brotherhood, called a strike of its members, some seventy-eight in number, in the employ of Anheuser-Busch, attempted to call sympathy strikes by members of other unions in its employ and caused the premises of Anheuser-Busch and the adjacent premises leased to Gaylord to be picketed by persons “bearing umbrellas and charging Anheuser-Busch, Inc., to be unfair to organized labor; with th'e intent to shut down the brewery and manufacturing plant of Anheuser-Busch, Inc., to hinder and prevent the passage of persons and property to and from said premises and thus to restrain and stop the commerce of Anheuser-Busch” in the beer and other products manufactured by it, and in the supplies and materials procured by it extrastate, and “to restrain the commerce” of Gay-lord. It is alleged that pursuant to the conspiracy, defendants “refused to permit members of the United Brotherhood ... to be employed and prevented such members from being employed by Borsari . . . with the intent and effect of preventing construction of the building about to be built by Borsari . . . and thus of restraining the commerce of Anheuser-Busch in beer . . . and also with the knowledge and willful disregard of the consequent restraint and stoppage of commerce in the materials intended to be used by Borsari.” Like allegations are made with respect to Stocker with the added charge that the acts alleged were with intent to prevent performance of Stocker’s contract with Gaylord “with willful disregard of the consequent restraint of the commerce of Gaylord.”
*239There is the further allegation that pursuant to the conspiracy defendants and their co-conspirators have instigated and brought about a “boycott of beer brewed by Anheuser-Busch . . . and of dealers in said beer throughout the United States,” by distributing to members of labor organizations and to the public at large in many states and by published notices circulated interstate “denouncing Anheuser-Busch, Inc. as unfair to organized labor and calling upon all union members and friends of organized labor to refrain from purchasing and drinking said beer.”
We are concerned with the alleged activities of defendants, actual or intended, only so far as they have an effect on commerce prohibited by the Sherman Act as it has been amended or restricted in its operation by the Clayton Act. * The legality of the alleged restraint under the Sherman Act is not affected by characterizing the strike, as this indictment does, as “jurisdictional” or as not within the “legitimate object of a labor union.” The restraints charged are of two types: One is that resulting to the commerce of Anheuser-Busch, Borsari, Stocker and Gaylord from the peaceful picketing of the AnheuserBusch premises, a part of which is leased to Gaylord, and the refusal of the Brotherhood to permit its members tó work, and its prevention of its members from working (by what means other than picketing does not appear) for Borsari and Stocker. The other is that resulting from the requests addressed to 'the public to refrain from purchasing Anheuser-Busch beer.
It is plain that the first type of restraint is only that which is incidental to the conduct of a local strike and which results from closing the plant of a manufacturer or builder who ships his product in interstate commerce, or who procures his supplies from points outside the state. Such restraints, incident to such a strike, upon the interstate transportation of the products or supplies have *240been repeatedly held by this Court, without a dissenting voice, not to be within the reach of the Sherman AntiTrust Act. There is here no allegation in the case of any of the employers of any interference, actual or intended, by strikers with goods moving or about to be shipped in interstate commerce such as was last term so sharply presented and held not to be a violation of the Sherman Act in Apex Hosiery Co. v. Leader, 310 U. S. 469.
With respect to Borsari and Stocker the indictment does no more than charge a local strike to enforce the jurisdictional demands upon Anheuser-Busch by the refusal of union members to work in the construction of buildings for Anheuser-Busch or upon its land, the work upon which, so far as appears, has not even begun. The restraint alleged is only that resulting from the “disregard” by the strikers of the stoppage of the movement interstate of the building materials and the manufactured products of Gaylord consequent upon their refusal to construct the buildings. Precisely as in Levering & Garrigues Co. v. Morrin, 289 U. S. 103, where a local building strike with like consequences was held not to violate the Sherman law, there is wanting here any fact to show that the conspiracy was directed at the use of any particular building material in the states of origin and destination or its transportation between them “with the design of narrowing or suppressing the interstate market,” each of which were thought to be crucial in Bedford Cut Stone Co. v. Stone Cutters’ Assn., 274 U. S. 37, 46-47. See Apex Hosiery Co. v. Leader, supra, 506.
As to the commerce of Anheuser-Busch and Gaylord, the indictment at most shows a conspiracy to picket peacefully their premises and publicly to charge the former with being unfair to organized labor, all with the intent to shut down the plant of Anheuser-Busch *241and to hinder and prevent the passage of persons and property to and from the premises and thus to restrain the commerce of Anheuser-Busch and Gaylord. There is also the allegation already noted that the refusal to work for Stocker will restrain the commerce of Gaylord, presumably because he will manufacture and ship less of his product if the proposed building is not completed.
It is a novel proposition that allegations of local peaceful picketing of a manufacturing plant to enforce union demands concerning terms of employment accompanied by announcements that the employer is unfair to organized labor is a violation of the Sherman Act whatever effect on interstate commerce may be intended to follow from the acts done. They, like the allegations here, show only such effect upon interstate commerce as may be inferred from the acts alleged and in any event such restraint as there may be is not shown to be more than' that which is incidental to every strike causing a shutdown of a manufacturing plant whose product moves in interstate commerce or stopping building operations where the builder is using materials shipped to him in interstate commerce. If the counts of the indictment which we are now considering make out an offense, then every local strike aimed at closing a shop whose products or supplies move in interstate commerce is, without more, a violation of the Sherman Act. They present a weaker case than those unanimously held by this Court not to involve violation of the Sherman Act in United Mine Workers v. Coronado Coal Co. (First Coronado Case), 259 U. S. 344; United Leather Workers v. Herkert & Meisel Co., 265 U. S. 457; Levering & Garrigues Co. v. Morrin, supra, and see Coronado Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers (Second Coronado Case), 268 U. S. 295, 310. In any case there is no allegation in the indictment that the restraint did or could operate to suppress competition *242in the market of any product and so dismissal of these counts is required by our decision in Apex Hosiery Co. v. Leader, supra.
The second and only other type of restraint upon interstate commerce charged is the so-called “boycott” alleged to be by the publication of notices charging AnheuserBusch with being unfair to labor and requesting members of the Union and the public not to purchase or use the Anheuser-Busch product. Were it necessary to a decision I should have thought that, since the strike against Anheuser-Busch was by its employees and there is no intimation that there is any strike against the distributors of the beer, the strike was a labor dispute between employer and employees within the labor provisions of the Clayton Act as they were construed in Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering, supra. In that case § 20 of the Act, as the opinion of the Court points out, makes lawful the action of any person* “ceasing to patronize . . . any party to such dispute” or “recommending, advising, or persuading others by peaceful and lawful means so to do.”
Be that as it may, it is a sufficient answer to the asserted violation of the Sherman Act by the publication of such notices and requests, to point out that the strike was by employees of Anheuser-Busch; that there was no boycott of or strike against any purchaser of AnheuserBusch beer by any concerted action or refusal to patronize him by the purchase of beer or other products supplied by him such as was condemned in Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U. S. 274, 300-307; cf. Apex Hosiery Co. v. Leader, *243supra, 505; and finally that the publication, unaccompanied by violence, of a notice that the employer is unfair to organized labor and requesting the public not to patronize him is an exercise of the right of free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment which cannot be made unlawful by act of Congress. See Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U. S. 88.*
I can only conclude that, upon principles hitherto recognized and established by the decisions of this Court, the indictment charges no violation of the Sherman Act.

Appellees, being national and local officers of the Brotherhood and representing the employees in the labor dispute with their employer, are “proximately and substantially concerned” as parties to an actual dispute and are, therefore, entitled to the benefits of the Clayton Act. See Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering, supra, 470, 471.