Opinion

Thomas v. Collins

  • 323 U.S. 516
  • 65 S. Ct. 315
  • 89 L. Ed. 430
  • 1945 U.S. LEXIS 2716
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Filed
Jan 15, 1945
Status
Published
Author
Douglas
On the bench
Rutledge, Douglas, Jackson, Roberts, Black, Murphy, Reed, Feankfuetee
Cited by
996 cases
Authority
More cited than 24.0%

holding that a law forbidding solicitation of union membership without obtaining an organizer’s card infringed on the right of speech and assembly to inform people of the advantages of union membership and persuade them to join a specific .union

How later courts described this case

  • holding that a law forbidding solicitation of union membership without obtaining an organizer’s card infringed on the right of speech and assembly to inform people of the advantages of union membership and persuade them to join a specific .union
  • holding that the very purpose of the First Amendment is to foreclose public authority from assuming a guardianship of the public mind through regulating the press, speech, and religion
  • stating that an 47 as applied challenge considers the “application” of a statute “to the particular circumstances of an individual” (citation omitted)
  • noting that certain stated justifications for infringement on religious liberty would likely not suffice in justifying the infringement and recognizing the government’s burden of showing that no alternatives existed to meet those justifications

Written by the judges who cited it.

Distinguished

  • Distinguished by Gilmore v. Gonzales, 435 F.3d 1125 (2006)

    " Thomas, however, is easily distinguishable from the present case.
    Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitJan 26, 2006Read it
  • Distinguished by Master Printers of America v. Donovan, 751 F.2d 700 (1984)

    Collins is distinguishable from this case in several respects.
    Court of Appeals for the Fourth CircuitDec 26, 1984Read it

The opinion

Mr. Justice Douglas,

concurring.

The intimation that the principle announced in this case serves labor alone and not an employer has been adequately answered in the opinion of the Court in which I join. But the emphasis on such cases as Labor Board v. Virginia Electric & Power Co., 314 U. S. 469 , and Virginia Electric & Power Co. v. Labor Board, 319 U. S. 533 , to prove that discrimination exists moves me to add these words. Those cases would be relevant here if we were dealing with legislation which regulated the relations between unions and their members. Cf. Steele v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., ante, p. 192. No one may be required to obtain a license in order to speak. But once he uses the economic power which he has over other men and their jobs to influence their action, he is doing more than exercising the freedom of speech protected by the First Amend *544 ment. That is true whether he be an employer or an employee. But as long as he does no more than speak he has the same unfettered right, no matter what side of an issue he espouses.

Mr. Justice Black and Mr. Justice Murphy join in this opinion.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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