Grand Right & Left

In a decision further denning the powers of organized labor, the Supreme Court ruled last week that a labor union can do what it will with its commodity (i.e., labor)--even to forcing an employer out of business.

The case arose out of a nasty strike in Philadelphia. A union official was killed and a partner in the firm of Hunt's Motor Freight and Food Products Transport was tried for the murder and acquitted. Thereafter, the A.F. of L. transport workers refused to negotiate with Hunt's; refused to admit any Hunt employes into the union. Without union labor, Hunt's was effectively boycotted, finally went out of business.

Hunt's promptly sought an injunction, sued the union for treble damages, charged that the union had violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by combining to restrain trade. Ruling on an appeal, the Supreme Court, in a bitterly argued 5-to-4 decision, threw the company's case out the window.

Said Justice Black, for the majority: "The only combination here was one of workers alone, and what they refused to sell petitioner was their labor. It is not a violation of the Sherman Act for laborers in combination to refuse to work. They can sell or not sell their labor as they please and upon such terms and conditions as they choose. . . ."

Acidly dissenting, Justice Roberts wrote: "It is hardly an accurate description of their attitude to say that the union men decided not to sell their labor to the petitioners. They intended to drive petitioners out of business as interstate motor carriers, and they succeeded in so doing."

In a separate dissent, Justice Jackson added that the majority decision gave to , labor "an arbitrary dominance" over the economic sphere which it controls--a dominance which "labor so long, so bitterly and so rightly asserted should belong to no man."

While the ruling showed a lively diversity of opinion, the Court's session--now closed--found the Justices gradually settling into a pattern. It was not as sharply defined as in the days of the Nine Old Men. It looked something like this: Justices Black, Douglas, Murphy and Rutledge on the left wing; Justices Roberts, Jackson, Stone, and the onetime red-hot New Dealer Frankfurter on the right. Frequently the deciding man was Justice Reed.

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