Lincoln Federal Labor Union et al. v. Northwestern Iron & Metal Co. et al. (335 U.S. 525)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 3, 1949 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 335 U.S. 525 · 69 S. Ct. 251
- Decided
- January 3, 1949
- Term
- October Term 1948
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Black
- Issue area
- Unions
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
- Precedent
- This decision overruled or formally altered earlier precedent
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. Under employment practices in the United States, employers have sometimes limited work opportunities to members of unions, sometimes to non-union members, and at other times have employed and kept their workers without regard to whether they were or were not members of a union. Employers are commanded to follow this latter employment practice in the states of North Carolina and Nebraska. A North Carolina statute and a Nebraska constitutional amendment provide that no person in those states shall be denied an opportunity to obtain or retain employment because he is or is not a member of a labor organization. To enforce this policy North Carolina and Nebraska employers are also forbidden to enter into contracts or agreements obligating themselves to exclude persons from employment because they are or are not labor union members. These state laws were given timely challenge in North Carolina and Nebraska courts on the ground that insofar as they attempt to protect non-union members from discrimination, the laws are in violation of rights guaranteed employers, unions, and their members by the United States Constitution. The state laws were challenged as violations of the right of freedom of speech, of assembly and of petition guaranteed unions and their members by “the First Amendment and protected against invasion by the…
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