Norris-LaGuardia Act

“ Again, not the least of the evils that led to the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 101 et seq., was the frequent practice of issuing labor injunctions upon the basis of affidavits rather than after oral proof presented in open court. ”

“ Labor organizations cannot justifiably ask to be treated as responsible contracting parties unless they are willing to assume the responsibility of such contracts to the same extent as the other party must assume his. Public opinion polls in evidence before the committee show that nearly 75 percent of the union members themselves concur in this view. For this reason, not only does the section, as heretofore pointed out, make the labor organization equally suable, but it also makes the Norris-LaGuardia Act inapplicable * * *. ”

“ The complaint prayed for temporary and permanent injunctions against the boycott and other interference with respondent's business, the payment of damages, and the usual catch-all relief. Petitioners moved to dismiss the action on the ground that the controversy as set forth in the complaint involved a 'labor dispute' under the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 47 Stat. ”

“ The reasoning of the lower courts in departing from the usual preponderance-of-evidence rule generally applicable to civil actions in federal courts [6] was rooted in § 6 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 47 Stat. ”

“ Only in § 302 (e) of Taft-Hartley [11] is there found a repeal of Norris-LaGuardia's anti-injunction provisions in favor of a suit by a private litigant. [12] The District Courts are there authorized to restrain the payment by employers and the acceptance by employee representatives of unauthorized payments in the nature of bribes. Not only is the problem thus dealt with 'unusually sensitive and important,' as the Court notes, [13] but the repeal of Norris-LaGuardia is clearly, predictably, and narrowly confined to one kind of suit over one kind of injury ”

“ Indeed, it might with as much force be said that Congress knew well how to limit remedies against employee activities to damages when that was what it intended, as that Congress knew how to repeal Norris-LaGuardia when that was what it intended. Section 303 of Taft-Hartley [14] authorizes private actions for damages resulting from certain concerted employee activities. ”

“ There are, undoubtedly, great and solid objections to legislation for particular cases. But these objections do not necessarily make such legislation repugnant to the constitution of the United States.
The act 'for the relief of Ezekiel Norris,' did not authorize the commissioner to grant him a certificate or warrant on his entry, unless he should prove that the purchase money had been paid. The laws had preserved such entries, and, consequently, an act to enable the proprietor of one of them to prosecute his claim, is not necessarily an act impairing the obligation of a contract. ”

“ In interpreting the general language of the Norris-La Guardia Act, the Court relied heavily on 'an old and wellknown rule,' albeit a rule of construction, 'that statutes which in general terms divest pre-existing rights or privileges will not be applied to the sovereign without express words to that effect.' 330 U.S. at page 272, 67 S.Ct. ”

“ I postulate another set of circumstances: a married male citizen brings proceedings by declaratory action to challenge the constitutional validity of ss. 61 and 62 of the Act of 1861, there is no true defence to the action but it is defended; in either event a declaratory order will he made striking down the sections as being constitutionally invalid because of the unwarrantable invasion of the right of privacy in marriage; there is no possible method of separating a constitutionally infirm part from the remainder – even if such is permissible in a criminal statute ”

“ Therefore, unless both parties are so bound, limiting an employer's remedy to damages might well be appropriate. The susceptibility of particular concrete situations to this sort of analysis shows that rejection of an outright repeal of § 4 was wholly consistent with acceptance of a technique of accommodation which would lead, in some cases, to the granting of injunctions against concerted activity. Accommodation requires only that the anti-injunction policy of Norris-LaGuardia not intrude into areas, not vital to its ends, where injunctive relief is vital to a purpose of § 301 ”

“ If any stipulation in the compact between North Carolina and Tennessee could have affected the controversy between Williams and Norris, it must have been because the title of Norris came within the reservation made by the State of North Carolina in her act of cession to Congress. ”