HUDGENS VS. NATIONAL LABOR RELTIONS BOARD ET AL.

424 U.S. 507

1976

FACTS:

Warehouse employees of the Butler Shoe Company went on a strike and decided to picket nine retail
locations in Atlanta. One of those stores was located in North Deklab Shopping Center , owned by the
petitioner , Hudgens. The picketers were informed by the mall manager that they would be arrested for
trespassing if they continued to picket inside the mall. The union filed an unfair labor practice against the
owner under section 8 of the National Labor Relations Act . NLRB brought suit to require Hudgens to allow
the picketing to continue. On the other hand, the owner contended that free speech considerations were
inapplicable in an analysis under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.

Issue:

Whether or not striking union members have a First Amendment free speech right to picket inside a
shopping centre in order to advertise their strike against the owner of one of the stores.

Held:

The court ruled that it was an error for the NLRB to consider competing constitutional and property right
considerations in its application of the act. The rights and liabilities of parties are dependent exclusively
upon the NLRA, which it is the NLRB’s task, subject to judicial review, to resolve conflicts between
constitutional rights and private property rights “with as little destruction of one as is consistent with the
maintenance of the other. The striking union members does not have First Amendment right to enter the
mall for the purpose of advertising their strike against one of the stores therein.