St John v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board

• Decision Date: 26 February 1951
• Docket Number: No. 302,302
• Citation: 71 S.Ct. 375,95 L.Ed. 386,340 U.S. 411
• Parties: ST. JOHN et al. v. WISCONSIN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

340 U.S. 411

71 S.Ct. 375

95 L.Ed. 386

ST. JOHN et al.

v WISCONSIN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD.

No. 302.

Argued Jan. 9, 10, 1951.

Decided Feb. 26, 1951.

Mr. Max Raskin, Milwaukee, Wis., for appellant.

Mr. J. Gilbert Hardgrove, Milwaukee, Wis., for appellee Milwaukee Gas Light Co.

Mr. Martin R. Paulsen, Milwaukee, Wis., for respondent Milwaukee Elec. Ry. Transport Co.

Mr. Malcolm Riley, Eau Claire, Wis., and Beatrice Lampert, Madison, Wis., for Wisconsin Employment Relations Board.

Mr. Justice Justice VINSON delivered the opinion of the Court.

The parties to this case are the same gas workers' union, many of the same officers of that union, the same gas companies and the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board involved in No. 438, 340 U.S. 383, 71 S.Ct. 359. The instant proceeding began when, at the time of the strike described in No. 438, appellant gas workers filed suit in a federal district court against the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board and the gas company for declaratory and injunctive relief to the end that the Wisconsin Public Utility Anti-Strike Law St. 1947, § 111.50 et seq., be adjudged invalid for the reasons successfully advanced in No. 438.

The District Court of three judges, convened under 28 U.S.C. § 2281, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2281, did not reach the substantive issues, but relied on principles of res judicata, holding that a prior state court judgment to which appellants were party conclusively barred them from raising any issues pertaining to the constitutionality of the Wisconsin Act. In that prior state court action, brought to test the statute before any strike had been threatened, appellants sought a declaratory judgment that the Wisconsin Act contravened the State Constitution and the Federal Due Process Clause and was in conflict with federal labor legislation. Except for the question of undue delegation of power under the state constitution, the issues sought to be raised in the state declaratory proceeding were the same as those raised in No. 438, and in the instant proceeding. In the prior state court action, the Circuit Court entered judgment against appellants on the merits on all issues. On appeal, the Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed, but reached the merits only in respect to the delegation-of-power issue. As to the issues common to that case, the instant case and No. 438, the State Supreme Court held that a decision on the constitutional questions presented would be premature in the absence of a concrete factual record, and that courts should not decide constitutional issues in the abstract or as hypothetical questions. United Gas, Coke & Chemical Workers of America, Local 18, C.I.O. v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board, 1949, 255 Wis. 154, 38 N.W.2d 692. Certiorari to that decision was not sought in this Court, appellant contending that such a step would have been futile in view of the adequacy of the state grounds supporting the Wisconsin court's refusal to adjudicate the issues presented.

Following this abortive attempt to secure a final adjudication of the federal questions, there occurred a strike and a state circuit court issued a restraining order, as described in the opinion in No. 438. In the resulting contempt proceeding, before us in No. 438, appellants attack the validity of the Wisconsin Act, raising the Due Process and Commerce Clause questions. Appellees urged in that case, as they do in this case, that the prior state declaratory judgment proceeding barred appellants' further attack upon the act under the doctrine of res judicata. Appellees' reason that since the State Circuit Court judgment in the prior action went against appellants on the merits and since the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered that judgment 'affirmed,' the judgment barred further attack on the statute by appellants without regard to what the Wisconsin Supreme Court might have said in its opinion. The Federal District Court adopted this line of reasoning as to res judicata and held,...