William O. Douglas

“ It shall be the duty of all carriers, their officers, agents, and employees to exert every reasonable effort to make and maintain agreements concerning rates of pay, rules, and working conditions, and to settle all disputes, whether arising out of the application of such agreements or otherwise, in order to avoid any interruption to commerce or to the operation of any carrier growing out of any dispute between the carrier and the employees thereof.' See note 5. ”

“ Whether the imposition of judicial review on top of the Mediation Board's administrative determination would strengthen that protection is a considerable question. [2] All constitutional questions aside, it is for Congress to determine how the rights which it creates shall be enforced. ”

“ The Railway Labor Act does not provide specifically for judicial review of the certification by the Mediation Board under Sec. 2, Ninth, of representatives, even though that certification is based upon an erroneous interpretation of the statute. ”

“ It was determined that Congress intended to leave finally the determination of the beneficiaries to its agent, the Interstate Commerce Commission. This intention is far easier to deduce when the Congress is dealing with its own money than where it creates rights of suffrage for citizens to exercise for the improvement of their economic condition.
The Virginian Railway case presents a much closer analogy to the present controversy. As pointed out above, it dealt with the carrier's duty to 'treat with' employees declared by Section 2, Ninth. ”

“ Where duties are delegated, as here, to administrative officers, those administrative officers are authorized to act only in accordance with the statutory standards enacted for their guidance. Otherwise we should risk administrative action, beyond or contrary to the legislative will. ”

“ This right is created for these employees by the Railway Labor Act and, in appropriate proceedings, a remedy, provided by the general jurisdiction of district courts, to test the extent of this right to select representatives follows from the creation of the right unless negatived by statute, withdrawal of jurisdiction or the like, when the right is claimed to be infringed. ”

“ No other orders under the Act, legally binding on employees, spring from acts of bargaining representatives. [14]
The petitioners may not have an opportunity to impeach or contest an award of a board of arbitration reached after collective bargaining. The negotiations between the certified representative and the carriers may not require orders of the Adjustment Board or the board of arbitration. Mediation may compose the differences. Sec. 5. In such cases there is no opportunity for the petitioners to intervene. ”