Muniz v. Hoffman
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The issues in this case are whether a labor union or an individual, when charged with criminal contempt for violating an injunction issued pursuant to § 10 (Í) of the Labor Management Relations Act, as added, 61 Stat. 149, and as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 160 (i), has a right to a jury trial under 18 U. S. C. § 3692, and whether the union has a right to a jury trial under the Constitution when charged with such a violation and a fine of as much as $10,000 is to be imposed.
I
Early in 1970, Local 21 of the San Francisco Typographical Union commenced picketing a publishing plant of a daily newspaper in San Rafael, Cal. Shortly thereafter, the newspaper filed an unfair labor practice charge against this union activity, and the Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board, in response to that filing, petitioned the District Court pursuant to § 10 (l) for a temporary injunction against those activities pending final disposition of the charge by the Board. The District Court, after a hearing, granted the requested relief and, more than two months later, granted a second petition for a temporary injunction filed by the Regional Director in response to other union activities related to
II
The petitioners’ claim to jury trial under § 3692 is simply stated: that section provides for jury trial in contempt cases arising under any federal law governing the issuance of injunctions in any case growing out of a labor dispute; here, the injunction issued under § 10 (l) arose out of a labor dispute in the most classic sense and hence contempt proceedings were subject to § 3692’s requirement for jury trial. Were we to consider only the language of § 3692, we might be hard pressed to disagree. But it is not unusual that exceptions to the applicability of a statute’s otherwise all-inclusive language are not contained in the enactment itself but are found in another statute dealing with particular situations to which the first statute might otherwise apply.
The crucial issue is whether in enacting the Wagner and Taft-Hartley Acts, Congress not only intended to exempt the injunctions they authorized from NorrisLaGuardia’s limitations, but also intended that civil and criminal contempt proceedings enforcing those injunctions were not to afford contemnors the right to a jury trial. Surely, if § 10 (i) of Taft-Hartley had expressly provided that contempt proceedings arising from the injunctions which the section authorized would not be subject to jury trial requirements, it would be as difficult to argue that § 3692 nevertheless requires a jury trial as it would be to insist that Norris-LaGuardia bars the issuance of any injunctions in the first place. Section 10 (l), of course, does not so provide; we think it reasonably clear from that and related sections and from their legislative history that this result is precisely what Congress intended.
The Wagner Act made employers subject to court orders enforcing Board cease-and-desist orders. Those orders, or many of them, were of the kind NorrisLaGuardia, on its face, prohibited; but § 10 (h) of the Wagner Act provided that in “granting appropriate temporary relief or a restraining order, or . . . enforcing ... or setting aside ... an order of the Board, . . .
No party in this case suggests that the injunctions authorized by Congress in 1935 and 1947 were subject to the jurisdictional and procedural limitations of NorrisLaGuardia. Neither can it be seriously argued that, at the time of enactment of the Wagner and Taft-Hartley Acts, civil or criminal contempt charges arising from violations of injunctions authorized by those statutes were to be tried to a jury. The historic rule at the time was that, absent contrary provision by rule or statute, jury trial was not required in the case of either civil or criminal contempt. See Green v. United States, 356 U. S. 165, 183, 189 (1958). Section 11 of Norris-LaGuardia, 29 U. S. C. § 111 (1946 ed.),
It would be difficult to contend otherwise. It seems beyond doubt that since 1935 it had been understood that the injunctions and enforcement orders referred to in § 10 (h) were not subject to the jury requirements of § 11 of Norris-LaGuardia. When Congress subjected labor unions to unfair labor practice proceedings in 1947, and in §§ 10 (j) and 10 (l) provided for interim injunctive relief from the courts pending Board decision in unfair labor practice cases, it was equally plain that § 11 by its own terms would not apply to contempt cases arising out of these injunctions. By providing for labor
That this was the congressional understanding is revealed by the legislative history of the Labor Management Relations Act.
“Sections 10 (g), (h), and (i) of the present act, concerning the effect upon the Board's orders of enforcement and review proceedings, making inapplicable the provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act in proceedings before the courts, were unchanged either by the House bill or by the Senate amendment, and are carried into the conference agreement.” H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 57 (1947) (emphasis added).7
“[T]he . . . Norris-LaGuardia Act is completely suspended ... in the current National Labor Relations Act whenever the Board goes into court to obtain an enforcement order for one of its decisions. Organized labor did not object to the suspension of the Norris-LaGuardia Act in that case, I suppose presumably because under the present act the only ones to whom it could apply are employers. Organized labor was perfectly willing to have the NorrisLaGuardia Act completely wiped off the books when it came to enforcing Board orders in labor disputes against employers.” 93 Cong. Rec. 4835 (1947).
This statement was made in the context of Senator Ball’s explanation of his proposed amendment to § 10 (l) as reported out of committee. That section provided generally that the Board would be required, under certain circumstances, to seek injunctive relief in the federal
“[W]hen the regional attorney of the NLRB seeks an injunction [pursuant to § 10 (7) as reported] the Norris-LaGuardia Act is completely suspended .... We do not go quite that far in our amendment. We simply provide that the Norris-LaGuardia Act shall not apply, with certain exceptions. We leave in effect the provisions of sections 11 and 12. Those are the sections which give an individual charged with contempt of court the right to a jury trial.'' 93 Cong. Rec. 4834 (1947).
The Ball amendment was defeated, and private injunctive actions were not authorized. But the provisions for Board injunctions were retained and the necessity for them explained in the Senate Report:
“Time is usually of the essence in these matters, and consequently the relatively slow procedure of Board hearing and order, followed many months later by an enforcing decree of the circuit court of appeals, falls short of achieving the desired objectives — the prompt elimination of the obstructions to the free flow of commerce and encouragement of the practice and procedure of free and private collective bargaining. Hence we have provided that the Board, acting in the public interest and not*467 in vindication of purely private rights, may seek injunctive relief in the case of all types of unfair labor practices and that it shall also seek such relief in the case of strikes and boycotts defined as unfair labor practices.” S. Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 8 (1947) (emphasis added).
Ill
It is argued, however, that whatever the intention of' Congress might have been with respect to jury trial in contempt actions arising out of Taft-Hartley injunctions, all this was changed when § 11 was repealed and replaced by 18 U. S. C. § 3692 as part of the 1948 revision of the Criminal Code, in the course of which some sections formerly in Title 18 were revised and some related provisions in other titles were recodified in Title 18. The new § 3692, it is insisted, required jury trials for contempt charges arising out of any injunctive order issued under the Labor Management Relations Act if a labor dispute of any kind was involved. Thenceforward, it is claimed, contempt proceedings for violations by unions or employers of enforcement orders issued by courts of appeals or of injunctions issued under § 10 (j) or § 10 (1) must provide the alleged contemnor a jury trial.
This argument is unpersuasive. Not a word was said in connection with recodifying § 11 as § 3692 of the Criminal Code that would suggest any such important change in the settled intention of Congress, when it enacted the Wagner and Taft-Hartley Acts, that there would be no jury trials in contempt proceedings arising out of labor Act injunctions. Injunctions authorized by the Labor Management Relations Act were limited to those sought by the Board, “acting in the public interest and not in vindication of purely private rights.” S. Rep.
Just as § 3692 may not be read apart from other relevant provisions of the labor law, that section likewise may not be read isolated from its legislative history and the revision process from which it emerged, all of which place definite limitations on the latitude we have in construing it. The revision of the Criminal Code was, as petitioners suggest, a massive undertaking, but,
“Based on section 111 of title 29, U. S. C., 1940 ed., Labor (Mar. 23, 1932, ch. 90, § 11, 47 Stat. 72).
“The phrase ‘or the District of Columbia arising under the laws of the United States governing the issuance of injunctions or restraining orders in any case involving or growing out of a labor dispute’ was inserted and the reference to specific sections of the Norris-LaGuardia Act (sections 101-115 of title 29, U. S. C., 1940 ed.) were eliminated.” H. R. Rep. No. 304, supra, at A176; 18 U. S. C., pp. 4442-4443.
It has long been a “familiar rule, that a thing may be within the letter of the statute and yet not within the statute, because not within its spirit, nor within the intention of its makers.” Holy Trinity Church v. United States, 143 U. S. 457, 459 (1892). Whatever may be said with regard to the application of this rule in other
The Court rejected this argument in terms acutely
In this case, involving the 1948 revision of the Criminal Code, the House and Senate Reports caution repeatedly against reading substantive changes into the revision, and the Reviser’s Note to § 3692 gives absolutely no indication that a substantive change in the law was contemplated. In these circumstances, our cases and the canon of statutory construction which Congress expected would be applied to the revisions of both the Criminal and Judicial Codes, require us to conclude, along with all the lower federal courts having considered this question since 1948, save one, that § 3692 does not provide for trial by jury in contempt proceedings brought to enforce an injunction issued at the behest of the Board in a labor dispute arising under the Labor Management Relations Act.
We also agree with the Court of Appeals that the union petitioner had no right to a jury trial under Art. Ill, § 2, and the Sixth Amendment. Green v. United States, 356 U. S. 165 (1958), reaffirmed the historic rule that state and federal courts have the constitutional power to punish any criminal contempt without a jury trial. United States v. Barnett, 376 U. S. 681 (1964), and Cheff v. Schnackenberg, 384 U. S. 373 (1966), presaged a change in this rule. The constitutional doctrine which emerged from later decisions such as Bloom v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 194 (1968) ; Frank v. United States, 395 U. S. 147 (1969); Baldwin v. New York, 399 U. S. 66 (1970); Taylor v. Hayes, 418 U. S. 488 (1974); and Codispoti v. Pennsylvania, 418 U. S. 506 (1974), may be capsuled as follows: (1) Like other minor crimes, “petty” contempts may be tried
This Court has as yet not addressed the question whether and in what circumstances, if at all, the imposition of a fine for criminal contempt, unaccompanied by imprisonment, may require a jury trial if demanded by the defendant. This case presents the question whether a fine of $10,000 against an unincorporated labor union found guilty of criminal contempt may be imposed after denying the union’s claim that it was entitled to a jury trial under the Sixth Amendment. Local 70 insists that where a fine of this magnitude is imposed, a contempt cannot be considered a petty offense within the meaning of 18 U. S. C. § 1 (3), and that its demand for a jury trial was therefore erroneously denied.
We cannot agree. In determining the boundary between petty and serious contempts for purposes of applying the Sixth Amendment’s jury trial guarantee, and in holding that a punishment of more than six months in prison could not be ordered without making a jury trial available to the defendant, the Court has referred to the relevant rules and practices followed by the federal and state regimes, including the definition of petty offenses under 18 U. S. C. § 1 (3). Under that section, petty offenses are defined as those crimes “the penalty for which
Affirmed.
A fine of $25,000 was imposed initiafiy, but $15,000 of that fine was subsequently remitted by the District Court based on Local 70’s obedience of the injunctions subsequent to the adjudication of contempt.
Title 18 U. S. C. § 3692 reads in pertinent part as follows:
“In all cases of contempt arising under the laws of the United States governing the issuance of injunctions or restraining orders in any case involving or growing out of a labor dispute, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the contempt shall have been committed.”
Although stating broadly at the outset that “[b]y its own terms [§ 3692] encompasses all cases of contempt arising under any of the several laws of the United States governing the issuance of injunctions in cases of a ‘labor dispute,' ” dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Stewart, post, at 482, that dissent seems to imply that § 3692, after all, does not reach all cases of contempt in labor dispute injunctions. That dissent appears to say that § 3692 provides the right to jury trials only in cases involving criminal, as opposed to civil, contempt. This is so, it is suggested, because that section guarantees the right to “the accused,” the inference being that one charged with civil contempt is not one properly denominated as an “accused.” Post, at 487-488, n. 7. But the phrase “the accused” was taken verbatim from § 11 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 47 Stat. 72, 29 U. S. C. § 111 (1946 ed.), and the legislative history of §11 leaves little room to doubt that when Congress enacted § 11, it
“As the House passed the bill it did not apply to all contempt cases under the act. As the Senate passed it, it applied to aE cases, either under the act or otherwise. As the House passed it, it applied only to criminal contempt. As the Senate passed it, it applied to all contempts. The compromise was to confine it to aE cases under the act and to eliminate the word ‘criminal,’ but the cases must arise under this act.” Id.., at 6450.
And, Senator Norris continued:
“Under the compromise made, the language of the Senate was agreed to, so that now anyone charged with any kind of a contempt arising under any of the provisions of this act will be entitled to a jury trial in the contempt proceedings.” Id., at 6453.
Certainly when Congress used the phrase “the accused” in § 11, it did not mean to limit that phrase to describing only those accused of criminal contempt.
The dissent of Mr. Justice Stewart also suggests that this limited reading of § 3692 is “consistent” with the placing of that provision, based on § 11 of Norris-LaGuardia, into Title 18 in 1948. If there is any consistency in this suggestion, it is in that dissent’s consistent position that Congress in 1948, without expressing any intention whatsoever to do so, made substantial changes in the right to jury trial — including outright repeal of whatever statutory right there was to jury trial in civE contempt cases arising out of labor disputes, thereby reversing itself on an issue that had been thoroughly considered and decided some 16 years before in Norris-LaGuardia.
In arguing that § 3692 may not reach civil contempt cases, Mr. Justice Stewart also relies on implications which he finds in § 10 (l)
There is also a suggestion in the dissent of Mr. Justice Stewart that one charged with contempt of an injunction issued during a national emergency, 29 U. S. C. §§ 176-180, would not have the right to a jury trial notwithstanding § 3692. Apparently this is so because 29 U. S. C. § 178 (b), § 208 of the Taft-Hartley Act, “provided simply and broadly that all the provisions of that [Norris-LaGuardia] Act are inapplicable.” Post, at 486. But the language Congress used in § 178 (b), “the provisions of sections 101 to 115 of this title, shall not be applicable,” is remarkably similar to the language used in the Conference Report of the Taft-Hartley Act to convey the congressional understanding of § 10 (h) of the Wagner Act which it was re-enacting in Taft-Hartley: “making inapplicable the provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act in proceedings before the courts . . . .” H. R. Conf. Rep. No. 510, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 57 (1947). See n. 6, infra.
Mr. Justice Stewart’s position with respect to the applicability of § 3692 in proceedings brought in the Court of Appeals to enforce Board orders directed against employers is even less clear, but it would seem to be the inescapable conclusion under the dissent’s analysis that, at least in criminal contempts of such orders, the courts of appeals would be required to empanel juries, a result that would certainly represent a novel procedure, see United States v. Barnett, 376 U. S. 681, 690-691, and n. 7 (1964).
On the other hand, if Mr. Justice Stewart would limit § 3692 to apply only to disobedience of those injunctions newly authorized by the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, that section, despite its language, would not apply to injunctions issued by the courts of appeals in enforcement actions against employers (it would be otherwise where unions or employees are involved) for the reason that the provisions of the Wagner Act included in the LMRA have the effect of exempting those situations from the reach of § 3692. Very similar reasons furnish sound ground for the inapplicability of § 3692 to contempt cases arising out of any of the injunctions authorized by the TaftHartley Act.
Section 11 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 29 U. S. C. § 111 (1946 ed.), read, in pertinent part, as follows:
“In all cases arising under sections 101-116 of this title in which a person shall be charged with contempt in a court of the United States (as herein defined), the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the contempt shall have been committed.”
The position of Mr. Justice Douglas, dissenting, post, at 478-479, that injunctions issued pursuant to the Wagner and Taft-Hartley Acts are or would have been “arising under” the Norris-LaGuardia Act, and therefore subject to § 11 prior to 1948, is contrary to the understanding of the Congresses that passed the Wagner Act, n. 6, infra, and the Taft-Hartley Act, infra, at 46L-467, and of every court to have considered this question, see cases cited n. 12, infra.
The only legislative history of the Wagner Act addressing this question was- the statement of a witness, apparently made in reference to the original version of § 10 (h), § 304 (a) of S. 2926, which was uncontradicted by any prior or subsequent history:
“The whole theory of enforcement of these orders is through contempt proceedings .... [T]he order of the labor board is made an order of the Federal court, subject to being punished by contempt. Now, in the Norris-LaGuardia Act, there has been considerable change of the ordinary procedure on contempt. I won’t go into detail, but simply state that in a great majority of instances punishment, where the employees are the defendants, must be by trial by jury. This is, of course, not permissible in any case under the Wagner bill.” Hearings on S. 2926 before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, 73d Cong., 2d Sess., 505 (1934).
The dissents suggest that the word “jurisdiction” as used in both § 10 (h) and § 10 (l) is to be read in the technical sense and that the reference to all the provisions of Norris-LaGuardia in § 10 (h) was merely “an additional means of identifying” the NorrisLaGuardia Act. Post, at 486. Yet the language quoted in the text from the House Managers’ statement supports only the position that Congress, in re-enacting § 10 (h) in 1947, understood that section as “making inapplicable the provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia
Petitioners’ contention that § 3692 was Congress’ response to the Court’s decision in United States v. Mine Workers, supra, is particularly insupportable in light of the fact that the Reviser’s Note, as set forth infra, at 469, was taken verbatim from the prior Reviser’s Note to § 3692 that was reported to the House on February 15, 1945, more than two years prior to this Court’s decision in Mine Workers and more than three years prior to the 1948 revision of the Criminal Code. The bill reported to the House in 1945, H. R. 2200, was adopted by the House on July 16, 1946, again prior to the decision in United Mine Workers and prior to February 5, 1947, when the House Committee on Education and Labor began hearings on labor legislation which eventually led to the introduction of the Taft-Hartley bill in the House on April 10, 1947. The identical version of the Criminal Code passed the House for the final time on May 12, 1947, almost two months prior to the House’s acceptance of the conference version of Taft-Hartley.
There could be no argument that the change in wording in § 3692 was intended to reach criminal contempt proceedings for violation of those Board injunctions newly authorized in 1947, for the House of Representatives passed § 3692 for the first time more than six months before hearings even commenced in the House to consider the Taft-Hartley legislation, and passed it for the second and final time, unchanged, almost two months before the House accepted the conference version of Taft-Hartley.
The House Report states that “[t]he reviser’s notes . . . explain in detail every change made in text.” H. R. Rep. No. 304, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 9 (1947).
The Court’s analysis in Fourco Glass Co. v. Transmirra Corp., 353 U. S. 222 (1957), is particular!}' relevant to our inquiry in this case because of the parallel courses followed by the revisions of the Criminal and Judicial Codes. The revision to the Criminal Code was prepared by a staff of experts drawn from various sources and, after this staff completed its work on that revision, the same staff turned its attention to the revision of the Judicial Code. The only hearings held in the House on either of the revisions were held jointly by a subcommittee of the House Committee on the Judiciary. Hearings on Revision of Titles 18 and 28 of the United States Code, before Subcommittee No. 1 of the House Committee on the
“Revision, as distinguished from codification, required the substitution of plain language for awkward terms, reconciliation of conflicting laws, repeal of superseded sections, and consolidation of related provisions.”
The Senate Reports on the two revisions likewise expressed the intention of preserving the original meaning of the statutes undergoing revision. Compare S. Rep. No. 1620, 80th Cong., 2d Sess., 1 (1948), quoted in the text, supra, at 469, with S. Rep. No. 1559, 80th Cong., 2d Sess., 2 (1948) (“great care has been exercised to make no changes in the existing law which would not meet with substantially unanimous approval”). Testimony in the House joint hearings confirms that the methods and intent of the revisers themselves were the same with respect to both revisions. Hearings, supra, at 6.
This point was clearly made by the Law Revision Counsel to the House subcommittee which held joint hearings on the revisions to the Judicial and Criminal Codes:
“There is one thing that I would like to point out . . . and that is the rule of statutory construction.
“In the work of revision, principally codification, as we have*473 done here, keeping revision to a minimum, I believe the rule of statutory construction is that a mere change of wording will not effect a change in meaning unless a clear intent to change the meaning is evidenced.
“To find out the intent, I think the courts would go to the report of the committee on the bills and these reports are most comprehensive. We have incorporated in them . . . notes to each section of the bills, both the criminal code and the judicial code.
“It is clearly indicated in each of those revisers’ notes whether any change was intended so that merely because we have changed the language — we have changed the language to get a uniform style, to avoid awkward expression, to state a thing more concisely and succinctly — but a mere change in language will not be interpreted as an intent to change the law unless there is some other clear evidence of an intent to change the law.” Hearings on Revision of Titles 18 and 28 of the United States Code before Subcommittee No. 1 of the House Committee on the Judiciary, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 40 (1947) (emphasis added).
This statement is particularly persuasive in view of the fact that its maker, Mr. Zinn, had served as Counsel to the Committee on Revision of the Laws for the previous eight years; the House Report on the revision of the Criminal Code pointed out that Mr. Zinn had, for that Committee, “exercised close and constant supervision” over the work of the revisers who prepared the revision. H. R. Rep. No. 304, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 3 (1947). The nature of the revision process itself requires the courts, including this Court, to give particular force to the many express disavowals in the House and Senate Reports of any intent to effect substantive changes in the law.
Madden v. Grain Elevator, Flour & Feed Mill Workers, 334 F. 2d 1014 (CA7 1964), cert. denied, 379 U. S. 967 (1965) (§10 (l) proceeding); Schauffler v. Local 1291, International Longshoremen’s Assn., 189 F. Supp. 737 (ED Pa. 1960), rev’d on other grounds, 292
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
I
I believe that petitioners are entitled to trial by jury under 18 XJ. S. C. § 3692, which provides that, with certain exceptions not here material:
“In all cases of contempt arising under the laws of the United States governing the issuance of injunctions or restraining orders in any case involving or growing out of a labor dispute, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury . . . .”
In enacting this language in 1948, Congress reaffirmed the purpose originally expressed in § 11 of the NorrisLaGuardia Act, 47 Stat. 72, 29 U. S. C. § 111 (1946 ed.). That Act was intended to shield the organized labor movement from the intervention of a federal judiciary perceived by some as hostile to labor. The Act severely constrained the power of a federal court to issue an injunction against any person “participating or interested in a labor dispute.” Section 11 provided for trial by jury in “all cases arising under this Act in which a person shall be charged with contempt.” In the context of the case now before us, I view this section as affording, at the very least, a jury trial in any criminal contempt proceeding involving an alleged violation of an injunction issued against a participant in a “labor dispute.” Any such injunction issued by a federal court was one “arising under” the Act, for it could have been issued only in accordance with the Act’s prescriptions.
For the reasons stated by Mr. Justice Stewart, post, at 485-486, I am persuaded that §§10 (h) and 10 (l) of the National Labor Relations Act made inapplicable only the anti-injunction provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act and did not disturb § 11. The broad mandate of § 11, to afford trial by jury in a contempt proceeding involving an injunction issued in a labor dispute, was thus continued in § 3692.
II
1 would reverse the judgment against Local 70 on constitutional grounds.
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed . . . (Emphasis added.)
The Court fails to give effect to this language when it declares that a $10,000 fine is not “of such magnitude that a jury should have been interposed to guard against bias or mistake.” Ante, at 477. I have previously protested this Court’s refusal to recognize a right to jury trial in cases where it deems an offense to be “petty.”
“In a suit at common law to recover above $20.00, a jury trial is assured. And to us, it seems improbable that while providing for this protection in such a trifling matter the framers of the Constitution intended that it might be denied where imprisonment for a considerable time or liability for fifteen times $20.00 confronts the accused.”
I would follow the clear command of Art. Ill and the Sixth Amendment and reverse the judgment as to Local 70.
As initially enacted by the Senate, § 11 contained no “arising under” language and would have applied in all criminal contempt proceedings, whether or not involving an injunction issued in a
This construction is consistent with the remark in United States v. Mine Workers, 330 U. S. 258, 298 (1947), that “§ 11 is not operative here, for it applies only to cases ‘arising under this Act/ and we have already held that the restriction upon injunctions imposed by the Act do [sic] not govern this case.” As the entire sentence makes clear, § 11 was “not operative” because the Court had found that the underlying dispute between the Government and the Mine Workers was not the kind of “labor dispute” to which the NorrisLaGuardia Act had been addressed. See 330 U. S., at 274-280. See also id., at 328-330 (Black and Douglas, JJ., concurring and dissenting).
We deal here with criminal contempt proceedings. Whether § 3692 affords trial by jury in civil contempt proceedings is a question not presented here and on which, accordingly, I express no opinion.
Petitioner Muniz apparently decided not to raise the constitutional issue in this Court; our grant of certiorari on the issue thus extended only to Local 70. 419 U. S. 992 (1974).
E. g., Baldwin v. New York, 399 U. S. 66, 7A-76 (1970) (Black, J., joined by Douglas, J., concurring in judgment); Frank v. United States, 395 U. S. 147, 159-160 (1969) (Black, J., joined by Douglas, J., dissenting). See also Johnson v. Nebraska, 419 U. S. 949 (1974) (Douglas, J., dissenting from denial of certiorari).
As noted in my dissenting opinion in Chef¡ v. Schnackenberg, 384 U. S. 373, 386-391 (1966), the “petty offense” doctrine began as an effort to identify offenses that were by their nature “petty,” and the punishment prescribed or imposed was one factor to be considered in characterizing the offense. Under the Court’s current formulation, the penalty is of controlling significance. See Codispoti v. Pennsylvania, 418 U. S. 506, 512 (1974).
Dissenting Opinion
with whom Mr. Justice Marshall and Mr. Justice Powell join, dissenting.
In 1948 Congress repealed § 11 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, 47 Stat. 72, 29 U. S. C. § 111 (1946 ed.), which provided a right to a jury trial in cases of contempt arising under that Act, and added § 3692 to Title 18 of the United States Code, broadly guaranteeing a jury trial “[i]n all cases of contempt arising under the laws of the United States governing the issuance of injunctions or restraining orders in any case involving or growing out of a labor dispute.” I cannot agree with the Court's conclusion that this congressional action was without any significance and that § 3692 does not apply to any contempt proceedings involving injunctions that may be issued pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 151 et seq. Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment before us.
The contempt proceedings in the present case arose out of a dispute between Local 21 of the International Typographical Union and the San Rafael Independent Jour
Section 3692 unambiguously guaranteees a right to a jury trial in such criminal contempt proceedings. The section provides in pertinent part:
“In all cases of contempt arising under the laws of the United States governing the issuance of injunctions or restraining orders in any case involving or growing out of a labor dispute, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the contempt shall have been committed.”
Section 3692 thus expressly applies to more than just those cases of contempt arising under the Norris-LaGuardia Act. By its own terms the section encompasses all cases of contempt arising under any of the several laws of the United States governing the issuance of injunctions in cases of a “labor dispute.” Section 10 (7) of
Section 10 (i) requires the Board’s regional official to petition the appropriate district court for injunctive relief pending final Board adjudication when he has “reasonable cause” to believe that a labor organization or its agents have engaged in certain specified unfair labor practices.
There is nothing in the rather meager legislative history of § 3692 to indicate that, despite the comprehensive language of the section, Congress intended that it was to apply only to injunctions covered by the NorrisLaGuardia Act. The revisers did not say that § 3692 was intended to be merely a recodification of § 11 of the Norris-LaGuardia Act.
Nothing in § 10 (?), or in any other provision of the National Labor Relations Act, requires that § 3692 be given any different meaning in cases involving injunctions issued pursuant to the Act. To be sure, § 10 (?) provides that, upon the filing of a Board petition for a temporary injunction, “the district court shall have jurisdiction to grant such injunctive relief or temporary restraining order as it deems just and proper, notwithstanding any other provision of law . . . .” But requiring a jury trial prior to finding a union or union member in criminal contempt for violation of a § 10 (?) injunction is entirely compatible with that provision. Although such a reading of § 3692 provides procedural protection to the alleged contemnor, it in no way limits the jurisdiction of the district court to grant an injunction at the request of the Board.
Similarly, § 10 (h) does not indicate a congressional intent to eliminate the jury trial requirement for criminal contempts arising from disobedience of injunctions issued pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act.
In contrast, when Congress provided for the issuance of injunctions during national emergencies as part of the Taft-Hartley Act, 29 U. S. C. §§ 176-180, it did not merely state that the jurisdiction of district courts under those circumstances is not limited by Norris-LaGuardia. Rather, it provided simply and broadly that all of the provisions of that Act are inapplicable. 29 U. S. C. § 178 (b).
Section 10(¿), as enacted in 1947, 61 Stat. 149, provided that whenever the Board’s regional official has “reasonable cause” to believe the truth of a charge of illegal secondary boycotting or minority picketing, the official “shall,” on behalf of the Board, petition a district court for appropriate injunctive relief pending final Board adjudication. Once reasonable cause is found, a Board petition for temporary relief under § 10 (l) is mandatory. See S. Rep. No. 105, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., 8, 27. Congress in 1959 added charges of illegal hot cargo agreements and recognitional picketing to the mandatory injunction provision of § 10 (l). 73 Stat. 544.
“Labor dispute” as defined for the purpose of § 11 of the NorrisLaGuardia Act, upon which § 3692 was based, included “any controversy concerning terms or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment, regardless of whether or not the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee.” 47 Stat. 73. Section 2 (9) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U. S. C. §152 (9), defines “labor dispute” in virtually identical language.
While the respondent concedes that unfair labor practices often arise out of a “labor dispute,” he argues that the National Labor Relations Act is not essentially a law “governing the issuance of injunctions or restraining orders” in cases “involving or growing out of a labor dispute.” Although it may be true that not all provisions of the Act authorizing restraining orders are properly classified as such laws, it is clear that Congress concluded that at least some provisions were. Otherwise, there would have been no reason for Congress to have specifically exempted the jurisdiction of courts “sitting in equity” under § 10 of the Act from the limitations of Norris-LaGuardia, which apply only in cases involving requests for injunctive relief growing out of a labor dispute. See In re Union Nacional de Trabajadores, 502 F. 2d 113, 118 (CAI).
Any such intention would be inconsistent with the decision to repeal § 11 and to replace it with a broadly worded provision in the title of the United States Code dealing generally with “Crimes and Criminal Procedure.”
It may be questioned whether § 10 (h) has any relevance at all to the issue before us. As enacted in 1935, § 10 (h) was concerned solely with the jurisdiction of the courts of appeals (and district courts “if all the . . . courts of appeals to which application may be made are in vacation,” § 10 (e)) to modify and enforce Board orders following an administrative hearing and entry of findings by the Board. Section 10 (h) was retained without significant change at the time of the 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments to the National Labor Relations Act: “Sections 10 (g), (h), and (i) of the present act, concerning the effect upon the Board’s orders of enforcement and review proceedings, making inapplicable the provisions of the
The principal piece of legislative history offered as evidence of an affirmative congressional intent to free from the requirements of
On its face § 3692, which guarantees to “the accused” the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury, in language identical to the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a jury trial in criminal cases, appears to be limited to trials for criminal contempt. That construction is also consistent with the decision of Congress to place
Although injunctive relief under §§10 (j) and (l) is sought by the Board acting on behalf of the public rather than to vindicate private economic interests, this fact has little significance in considering the policy justifications for requiring a jury trial in criminal contempt proceedings. Regardless of whether the Board or an employer has sought the injunction, in the absence of a jury trial the judge who granted the order will be given complete authority to impose criminal punishment if he finds that his injunction has been deliberately disobeyed. The existence of this unbridled power in district court judges prior to 1932 was one of the principal factors leading to enactment of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, and in particular passage of the § 11 jury trial requirement. See generally A. Cox & D. Bolt, Cases and Materials on Labor Law 75-76 (7th ed.). Accordingly, the accommodation of § 10 (l) and § 3692 “which will give the fullest possible effect to the central purposes of both [statutes],” Sinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson, 370 U. S. 195, 216 (Brennan, J., dissenting), is to recognize the Board’s power to seek temporary injunctive relief under § 10 (l) without regard to the limitations of Norris-LaGuardia, and to permit the issuing court to coerce
Reference
- Full Case Name
- MUNIZ Et Al. v. HOFFMAN, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
- Cited By
- 320 cases
- Status
- Published