Associated Press v. National Labor Relations Board 8212 10, 1937
| Decision Date | 12 April 1937 |
| Docket Number | No. 365,365 |
| Citation | 57 S.Ct. 650,301 U.S. 103,81 L.Ed. 953 |
| Parties | ASSOCIATED PRESS v. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD. Argued Feb. 9—10, 1937 |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. John W. Davis and William C. Cannon, both of New York City, for petitioner.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 104-116 intentionally omitted]
Messrs. Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr., of Boston, Mass., and Charles Fahy, of Washington, D.C., for respondent.
[Argument of Counsel from Pages 117-121 intentionally omitted]
In this case we are to decide whether the National Labor Relations Act,1 as applied to the petitioner by an order of the National Labor Relations Board, exceeds the power of Congress to regulate commerce pursuant to article 1, § 8, abridges the freedom of the press guaranteed by the First Amendment, and denies trial by jury in violation of the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution.
In October, 1935, the petitioner discharged Morris Watson, an employee in its New York office. The American Newspaper Guild, a labor organization, filed a charge with the Board alleging that Watson's discharge was in violation of section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C.A. § 157) which confers on employees the right to organize, to form, join, or assist labor organizations to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing and to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection; that the petitioner had engaged in unfair labor practices contrary to subsections (1) and (3) of section 8 (29 U.S.C.A. § 158(1, 3) by interfering with, restraining, or coercing Watson in the exercise of the rights guaranteed him by section 7 and by discriminating against him in respect of his tenure of employment and discouraging his membership in a labor organization. The Board served a complaint upon the petitioner charging unfair labor practices affecting commerce within the meaning of the statute. The petitioner answered admitting Watson's discharge, but denying that it was due to his joining or assisting the Guild or engaging in union activities, and denying, on constitutional grounds, the validity of the act and the jurisdiction of the Board.
At a hearing before a trial examiner the petitioner appeared specially and moved to dismiss the complaint on constitutional grounds. The motion was overruled on all grounds except upon the question whether the proceeding was within the federal commerce power. Counsel thereupon withdrew from the hearing and the matter was further heard without the participation of the petitioner or its counsel. After receiving voluminous evidence as to the character of the petitioner's business, the examiner overruled the contention that interstate commerce was not involved and proceeded to hear the merits. At the close of the hearing he recommended that on order be entered against the petitioner. Notice of the filing of this report
and of hearing thereon by the Board was given the petitioner but it failed to appear. Based upon the examiner's report the Board made findings of fact, stated its conclusions of law, and entered an order that the Associated Press cease and desist from discouraging membership in the American Newspaper Guild or any other labor organization of its employees, by discharging, threatening to discharge, or refusing to reinstate any of them for joining the Guild or any other labor organization of its employees, and from discriminating against any employee in respect of hire of tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment for joining the Guild or any other such organization, and from interfering with, restraining, or coercing its employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in section 7 of the act. It further enjoined the Associated Press to offer Watson reinstatement to his former position without prejudice to any rights and privileges previously enjoyed by him; to make him whole for any loss of pay suffered by reason of his discharge; to post notices in its New York office stating it would cease and desist from the enjoined practices, and to keep such notices posted for thirty days.2
The petitioner refused to comply with the order, and the Board, pursuant to section 10(e) of the act (29 U.S.C.A. § 160(e), petitioned the Circuit Court of Appeals for enforcement. The petitioner answered again setting up its contentions with respect to the constitutionality of the act as applied to it. After argument, the court made a decree enforcing the order.3
In its answer to the Board's petition for enforcement the petitioner did not challenge the Board's findings of fact and no error is assigned in this court to the action of the Circuit Court of Appeals in adopting them. We, therefore, accept as established that the Associated Press
did not, as claimed in its answer before the Board, discharge Watson because of unsatisfactory service, but, on the contrary, as found by the Board, discharged him for his activities in connection with the Newspaper Guild. It follows that section 8, subsections (1) and (3), authorize the order and the only issues open here are those involving the power of Congress under the Constitution to empower the Board to make it in the circumstances.
First. Does the statute, as applied to the petitioner, exceed the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce? The solution of this issue depends upon the nature of the petitioner's activities, and Watson's relation to them. The findings of the Board in this aspect are unchallenged and the question becomes, therefore, solely one of law to be answered in the light of the uncontradicted facts.
The Associated Press is a membership corporation under the laws of New York which does not operate for profit, but is a co-operative organization whose members are representatives of newspapers. It has about 1,350 members in the United States and practically all the newspapers represented in its membership are conducted for profit. Its business is the collection of news from members and from other sources throughout the United States and foreign countries and the compilation, formulation, and distribution thereof to its members. In the process the news in prepared for members' use by editing, rewriting, selecting, or discarding the information received in whole or in part. The product is transmitted to member newspapers and also to foreign agencies pursuant to mutual exchange agreements. The service is not sold, but the entire cost is apportioned amongst the members by assessment.
Petitioner maintains its principal office in New York City, but has also division points scattered over the United
States, each of which is charged with the duty of collecting information from a defined territory and preparing and distributing it to newspapers within the assigned area and to other division points for use within their respective areas. Each member newspaper forwards news deemed important to the divisional headquarters of its area. In addition, employees of the petitioner obtain news which is transmitted to the appropriate division headquarters to be edited and forwarded to members within the area represented by that headquarters and to other divisions for distribution to member newspapers within their respective areas. The means of communication commonly used in receiving and transmitting news consists of wires leased from telegraph and telephone companies, but messenger service, the wireless, and the mail are also employed. Each division point is connected with every other by telegraph wires for exchange of news. Regional circuits supplement these primary circuits. All these lines of communication are utilized throughout the twenty-four hours of every day.
Consideration of the relation of Watson's activities to interstate commerce may be confined to the operations of the New York office where he was employed. This office is the headquarters of the Eastern Division and, through it operates the petitioner's foreign service, with offices, staffs, and correspondents throughout the world. News received in New York from foreign parts, from newspaper members within the Eastern Division, and from other division points, is edited by employees acting under the direction of supervising editors and, in its edited form, is transmitted throughout the division and to the headquarters of other divisions. The distributees of any given item are selected by those employed for the purpose in accordance with their judgment as to the usefulness of that item to the members or the divisions to which
it is transmitted. Thus the New York office receives and dispatches news from and to all parts of the world in addition to that from New York state and other Northeastern and Middle Atlantic states which comprise the Eastern Division. The work of the office is divided into two departments known as the Traffic Department and the News Department. All those employed in the actual receipt and transmission of news are in the Traffic Department; all others, including editorial employees, are grouped in the News Department. Watson at the time of his discharge was in the latter class, whose duty is to receive, rewrite, and file for transmission news coming into the office. An executive news editor, assisted by supervising editors and editorial employees, has general charge of the revision of news received from so-called filing editors who are in immediate charge of the telegraph wires connecting with the sources and destination of news. These filing editors supervise the news as it goes out from New York City; they determine what news, from the total copy delivered to them, is to be sent over the wires of which they have charge to the area reached by those wires and they have charge of rewriting such copy as it comes from the other editors as may be appropriate for use in their respective circuits and the...
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