National Labor Relations Board v. Donnelly Garment Co. et al. (330 U.S. 219)

U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 3, 1947 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)

Citation
330 U.S. 219 · 67 S. Ct. 756
Decided
March 3, 1947
Term
October Term 1946
Vote
9–0
Majority author
Justice Frankfurter
Issue area
Unions
Disposition
Reversed and remanded
Outcome
Petitioning party won
Ideological direction
Liberal

Opinion excerpt

Mr. Justice Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court. On March 6, 1940, the National Labor Relations Board, on finding that the Donnelly Garment Company had engaged in labor practices condemned as “unfair” by the Wagner Act, issued an order against the Company “to effectuate the policies” of the Act. The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit denied enforcement of the order and remanded the case to the Board. 123 F. 2d 215. After carrying out what it conceived to be the directions of the Court, the Board again found against the Company. The Court below denied enforcement of the Board’s second order “for want of due process in the proceedings upon which the order is based.” 151 F. 2d 854, 875. The correctness of this ruling is now before us, for we brought the case here, 327 U. S. 775, to rule on important issues in the administration of the Wagner Act. This protracted litigation has given rise to a swarm of questions. In view of the fact that the case comes to us after it has been twice before the Board and three times before the court below, on a record of thirteen volumes with a total of more than 5000 pages, even an earnest attempt at compactness cannot avoid a somewhat extended opinion. The case presents limited legal phases of one of those bitter, unedifying conflicts with which American industrial history is unfortunately replete. For other litigation…

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