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 inside a shopping
center complex owned by the petitioner, Scott Hudgens. They were noticed by the mall manager who told
them that picketing is not permitted in the mall. The picketers were also informed that they would be
arrested for trespassing if they continued to picket within the premises of the mall. Picketers left and the
union later 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 that the first amendment does not protect picketing in privately owned shopping
center. 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.