International Organization of Masters, Mates Pilots v. Brown

• Decision Date: 20 February 1991
• Docket Number: No. 89-1330,89-1330
• Parties: INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MASTERS, MATES & PILOTS, et al. v. Timothy A. BROWN
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

498 U.S. 466

111 S.Ct. 880

112 L.Ed.2d 991

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MASTERS, MATES & PILOTS, et al.

v Timothy A. BROWN.

No. 89-1330.

Argued Nov. 27, 1990.

Decided Feb. 20, 1991.

Syllabus

Respondent, an unsuccessful candidate in prior elections of petitioner Union, advised the Union that he would be a candidate in the upcoming 1988 election and requested that he be provided with mailing labels so that he could arrange for a timely mailing of election literature to members prior to the Union's nominating convention. The request was denied because a Union rule prohibited such preconvention mailings. Respondent filed suit under § 401(c) of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA), which places every union "under a duty, enforceable at the suit of any bona fide candidate . . ., to comply with all reasonable requests of any candidate to distribute by mail or otherwise at the candidate's expense campaign literature. . . ." The District Court entered a preliminary injunction in respondent's favor, ruling, inter alia, that § 401(c)'s clear language required it to focus on the reasonableness of respondent's request rather than on the reasonableness of the Union rule under which the request was denied, that the request was clearly reasonable, and, alternatively, that the Union rule was invalid. The Court of Appeals affirmed.

Held: Section 401(c) does not require a court to evaluate the reasonableness of a union rule before it decides whether a candidate's request was reasonable. Pp. 473-478.

(a) It is undisputed, first, that the case is not moot even though respondent's campaign literature has been distributed and he lost the 1988 election because he has run for office before and may well do so again, and the likelihood that the Union rule would again present an obstacle to his preconvention mailing makes this controversy sufficiently capable of repetition to preserve this Court's jurisdiction; second, that respondent was a "bona fide candidate" within § 401(c)'s meaning when he made his preconvention request; and, third, that there is no basis for contending that the request was not "reasonable" under § 401(c) apart from the fact that it violated the Union rule. Pp. 473-475.

(b) The text, structure, and purpose of Title IV of the LMRDA all demonstrate that § 401(c) simply prescribes a straightforward test: Is the candidate's distribution request reasonable? The section's language plainly requires unions to comply with "all reasonable requests" (empha- sis added), and just as plainly does not require union members to comply with "all reasonable rules" when making such requests. Moreover, Congress gave the candidate's § 401(c) right a special status not conferred upon other Title IV rights granted union members, which are expressly made subject to "reasonable" conditions imposed by unions and are judicially enforceable only in actions brought by the Secretary of Labor. A broad interpretation of the candidate's right also is consistent with the statute's basic purpose of ensuring free and democratic union elections by offsetting the inherent advantage incumbent union leadership has over potential rank and file challengers. Furthermore, the Union's arguments supporting its position that a request is per se unreasonable simply because it conflicts with a union rule are unpersuasive. The Union does not advance any other reason for suggesting that respondent's request was unreasonable; thus, the request must be granted. Pp. 475-478.

889 F.2d 58 (C.A.4 1989), affirmed.

STEVENS, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

W. Michel Pierson, Baltimore, Md., for petitioners.

Paul Alan Levy, Washington, D.C., for respondent.

James A. Feldman for the U.S. as amicus curiae supporting respondent, by special leave of Court.

Justice STEVENS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Labor unions have a statutory duty to distribute campaign literature to their membership in response to the reasonable request of any candidate for union office. In this case the union denied such a request because the candidate wanted the literature mailed in advance of the union's nominating convention and a union rule prohibited such preconvention mailing. The question presented is whether a court must evaluate the reasonableness of the union's rule before it decides whether the candidate's request wasreasonable. Like the Court of Appeals and the District Court, we conclude that the statute requires us to give a negative answer to that question.

I

The International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots (Union) represents about 8,500 members employed in, or in work related to, the maritime industry. Many of the members are away from home for extended periods of time because they work on ships that ply the high seas. Elections of Union officers are conducted every four years by means of a mail ballot. An international ballot committee, which oversees the election, is elected at the convention, and an impartial balloting agency, which conducts the balloting, is also selected by the delegates at the convention. App. 36, 25-26. The ballots are mailed to the membership no later than 30 days ¹ after the convention at which candidates are nominated, and must be returned within the ensuing 90-day period. Union rules authorize the mailing of campaign literature at the candidate's expense after nominations have been made but not before.² Any Union member in good standing may be a candidate; moreover, a candidate may nominate himself.

Respondent was an unsuccessful candidate for Union office in 1980 and 1984. On May 9, 1988, he formally advised the international secretary-treasurer of the Union that he would be a candidate in the election to be held in the fall and requested that the Union provide him with mailing labels containing the names and addresses of voting Union members to be given to a mailing service so that he could arrange, at his own expense, for a timely mailing of "election literature prior to the Convention." Id., at 41.

On June 2, 1988, respondent wrote to the international president of the Union advising him that he would be a candidate for that office, that he intended to send his first mailing to the membership on July 6, and that he had not "had the courtesy of a reply" to his earlier letter to the secretary-treasurer. Id., at 43. Five days later, the secretary-treasurer provided respondent with the following explanation as to why his request could not be accommodated:

"Although I can understand your eagerness in wanting to send out your campaign literature early, please be advised that as soon as the rules are established for mailing campaign literature, all candidates will be notified at the same time.

"As the practice has been in the past, and the Constitution prescribes, the IOMM & P Convention is the event in which all candidates officially are nominated to run for a particular office. Only after the Convention takes place, and when the Impartial Balloting Agency is designated, will the mailing agency to handle campaign literature be designated. Please refer to Article V, Section 10 of the International Constitution. This procedure has been established so that each candidate will have a fair and equal amount of time in which to adequately reach the membership and to prohibit any one candidate from having an edge over the other." Id., at 44-45.

On June 15, respondent appealed that denial to the Union general executive board,³ repeating his desire for action by July 5. Id., at 46. On July 6, the General Executive Board denied his appeal. Five days later, respondent filed this action under § 401(c) of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA), 73 Stat. 532, 29 U.S.C. § 481(c).⁴ In his complaint, respondent alleged that the con- vention was scheduled to begin on August 22 and that he wanted "to encourage the membership to begin consideration of his candidacy and of the issues he hope[d] to raise during his campaign before the deadline for making nominations, both in order to persuade the membership that he should be nominated and elected, and to attract support from individuals who might otherwise be inclined to run for office themselves or to encourage other members to do so." App. 8-9.⁵

Two weeks later, after both sides had filed affidavits and a hearing had been held, the District Court entered a preliminary injunction directing the Union and its two main officers "within forty-eight hours, and again in response to any future requests" to deliver the names and addresses of the Union members to a mailing service acceptable to the parties. Id., at 74. The order also provided that respondent should pay for the costs of the mailing service. Id., at 74-75. The District Court based its decision on alternative grounds. First, it held that the clear language of § 401(c) required it to focus on the reasonableness of respondent's request rather than on the reasonableness of the Union rule under which the request was denied. In addition, the District Court concluded that the request to make a campaign distribution approximately one month before the convention was "clearly reasonable," and that if the application of a Union rule resulted in the rejection of such a request, the rule was invalid. Id., at 77.

Second, and alternatively, the District Court held that even if the standard of review is the reasonableness of the Union rule, rather than the reasonableness of respondent's request, the rule was unreasonable because preconvention campaigning was essential to introducing a candidate and his ideas to Union members and because the postconvention ballot period of 90 days was inadequate for effective campaigning in a Union whose members' work kept them away from home for substantial periods of time. Id., at 77-78.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed. Brown v. Lowen, 857 F.2d 216 (1988).⁶ The majority held that the question whether respondent...