Truax v. Corrigan

Citations

• 257 U.S. 312
• 42 S. Ct. 124
• 66 L. Ed. 254
• 1921 U.S. LEXIS 1345
• 27 A.L.R. 375

Syllabus

<p>1. Where the issue is whether a state statute, in its application to facts specifically alleged, and admitted by demurrer, violates the plaintiff’s rights under the Constitution, this court .must analyze the facts as averred and draw its own inferences as to their ultimate effect; it is not bound by the state court’s conclusion in this regard, nor by that court’s declaration that the statute is merely a rule of evidence. P. 324.</p> <p>2. The bill showed in substance that the defendants, for the purpose of winning a strike called by the defendant labor union over terms and conditions of employment in plaintiffs’ restaurant,' conspired to injure or destroy the business by inducing actual and prospective customers to withhold their patronage, and to that end caused the restaurant to be picketed by men who, throughout business hours, were stationed at the entrance proclaiming in a loud voice its “ unfairness ” to union labor, and who patrolled the sidewalk before it and, by word of mouth and through banners and handbills, made and circulated abusive and libelous ' attacks upon the plaintiffs, their' business, their ' employees and customers, with threats of like consequences to future customers; and that much injury to the business resulted. . Held, that the bill stated a plain case of conspiracy and actionable wrong. P. 327.</p> <p>3. If, as it seems to have been interpreted by the Supreme Court of Arizona, the law of that State (Rev. Stats., 1913, par. 1464) regulating injunctions in labor controversies, grants the defendants in this case immunity from any civil or criminal action for the wrongs above stated, or leaves them merely subject to criminal prosecution for libel, it violates the Fourteenth Amendment by depriving the plaintiffs of their property without due process of law. P. 328.</p> <p>4. The legislative power of a State can only be exerted in subordination to the fundamental principles of right and justice which the guaranty of due process in the Fourt