Hugo Black

“ There is every reason why we should look at the injunction as we would a statute, and if upon its face it abridges the constitutional guaranties of freedom of expression, it should be stricken down. This is especially true because we must deal only with the federal question presented, which is whether petitioners have been denied their rights under the First Amendment. The injunction, like a statute, stands as an overhanging threat of future punishment. The law of Illinois has been declared by its highest court in such manner as to infringe upon constitutional guaranties. ”

“ No one doubts that Illinois can protect its storekeepers from being coerced by fear of damage to their property from window-smashing, or burnings or bombings. And to that end Illinois is free to use all its vast resources and powers, nor should this Court stand in the way so long as Illinois does not take away from its people rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the United States. ”

“ Punishment of lawless conduct is in accord with the necessities of government and is essential to the peace and tranquillity of society. But it is going a long way to say that because of the acts of these few men, six thousand other members of their union can be denied the right to express their opinion to the extent accomplished by the sweeping injunction here sustained. [17] Even those convicted of crime are not in this country punished by having their freedom of expression curtailed except under prison rules and regulations, and then only for the duration of their sentence. ”

“ In essence, the Illinois Supreme Court held that it was illegal for a labor union to publicize the fact of its belief that a cut-rate business system was injurious to the union and to the public, since such publicity necessarily discouraged that system's prospective purchasers. ”

“ No such undefined threat hangs over those who 'agree or arrange' with the advocates of the cut-rate system to encourage their method of distribution.
Nor is it any answer to say that the injunction would not be carried out in all its potential rigor. It was to obtain just these potentialities that respondent, already having secured from the trial court an injunction against acts of violence, appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court in order to secure an injunction broad enough to prevent petitioners' peaceable communication to the public of their side of the controversy. ”

“ When clear and present danger of riot, disorder, interference with traffic upon the public streets, or other immediate threat to public safety, peace, or order appears, the power of the Illinois courts to prevent or punish is obvious. ”

“ If that heart be weakened, the result is debilitation; if it be stilled, the result is death.
In addition, I deem it essential to our federal system that the states should be left wholly free to govern within the ambit of their powers. Their deliberate governmental actions should not lightly be declared beyond their powers. ”

“ There is no evidence and no finding that dissemination of information by pickets stimulated anyone else to commit any act of violence.
There was evidence that violence occurred-some committed by identified persons and some by unidentified persons. A strike of farmers supplying most of Chicago's milk took place in the early part of January, 1934. This strike practically stopped the inflow of milk into the city. As a result, the union drivers were ordered not to report for work on January 8 and 9, at the height of the strike. ”

“ Furthermore, this is true because a state has the power to adopt laws of general application to provide that the streets shall be used for the purpose for which they primarily exist, and because the preservation of peace and order is one of the first duties of government. ”

“ And where a trial judge has ruled that conduct is or is not contempt, the appellate court will not interfere unless the trial judge's findings are 'manifestly against the weight of the evidence' or 'clearly and palpably contrary' to it. See Oehler v. Levy, 256 Ill. 178, 183, 99 N.E. 912, 913; Boyden v. Boyden, 162 Ill.App. 77, 83; American Cigar Co. v. Berger, 221 Ill.App. 339, 341 (violation of injunction against picketing) ; Id., 221 Ill.App. 332; Schmook v. Fane, 301 Ill.App. 626, 22 N.E.2d 450 (violation of injunction against picketing) . ”