William Howard Taft

“ That no person has a vested interest in any rule of law, entitling him to have it remain unaltered for his benefit, is a principle thoroughly settled by numerous decisions of this court, and having general application, not confined at all to the rights and liabilities existing between employers and employees, or between persons formerly occupying that relation. ”

“ There is no discrimination as against them; others situated like them are accorded no greater right to an injunction than is accorded to them. Whatever complaint the competing restaurant keepers might have, if in the case supposed they were subject to be stopped by an injunction where former employees were not, it would not be a denial of equal protection to plaintiffs. ”

“ Nothing in the Arizona statute under consideration, either as written or as construed and applied, operates to discriminate against plaintiffs in favor of others similarly circumstanced and conditioned. Neither class of supposed offenders-those exempt from or those subject to injunction-stands in like case with plaintiffs who seek an injunction. ”

“ That the state of society, and the existing condition of good order, or the opposite, surrounding the business, and its liability to or immunity from interruption through particular forms of disorder, affect its profitableness, likewise is plain. ”

“ It is going far-too far, I submit-to assume that there is any discrimination in fact. Such a campaign as that conducted by defendants, the Legislature foresaw, was likely to be resorted to by employees or former employees, in the case of a dispute with the employer concerning terms or conditions of employment. In such a case, for reasons deemed sufficient, the Legislature declared there should be no injunction. ”

“ They appear to have gone beyond mere attempts to persuade plaintiffs' customers to withdraw their patronage, and to have resorted to abusive and threatening language towards the patrons themselves. The court declared, however, that the statute established a new rule of evidence for determining whether picketing was peaceful and not otherwise unlawful, and that, measured by the standard thus prescribed, defendants were not subject to injunction. ”

“ The Supreme Court of the state of Arizona sustained, against objections raised by plaintiffs in error under the 'due process of law' and 'equal protection' clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, a statutory provision found in paragraph 1464, Arizona Civil Code 1913, which restricts the employment of the process of injunction against what are called peaceful picketing and boycotting under certain circumstances, in terms similar to those found in section 20 of the Clayton Act of Congress (Act Oct. 15, 1914, c. 323, 38 Stat. 730, 738 [Comp. St. § 1243d] ) . ”