Osman et al. v. Douds, Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board (339 U.S. 846)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 5, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 339 U.S. 846 · 70 S. Ct. 901
- Docket
- No. 12
- Decided
- June 5, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 4–4
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson (wrote a concurrence), Justice Minton (joined a concurrence), Justice Burton (joined a concurrence), Justice Reed (joined a concurrence)
- Dissenting
- Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Frankfurter (wrote), Justice Black (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. This case was heretofore held for, and presents the same issues involved in, American Communications Association v. Douds, and United Steelworkers of America v. Labor Board, decided May 8, 1950, 339 U. S. 382. In these cases the Court upheld the constitutionality of § 9 (h) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended by the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, 61 Stat. 136, 146, 29 U. S. C. (Supp. III) §§ 141, 159 (h), which provides: “No investigation shall be made by the [National Labor Relations] Board of any question affecting commerce concerning the representation of employees, raised by a labor organization under subsection (c) of this section, no petition under subsection (e) (1) of this section shall be entertained, and no complaint shall be issued pursuant to a charge made by a labor organization under subsection (b) of section 160 of this title, unless there is on file with the Board an affidavit executed contemporaneously or within the preceding twelve-month period by each officer of such labor organization and the officers of any national or international labor organization of which it is an affiliate or constituent unit that he is not a member of the Communist Party or affiliated with such party, and that he does not believe in, and is not a member of or supports any organization that believes in or teaches, the overthrow of the United States…
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