UNITED STATES v. ENMONS ET AL.
No. 71-1193
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 4, 1972—Decided February 22, 1973
410 U.S. 396
William Bradford Reynolds argued the cause for the United States. With him on the briefs were Solicitor General Griswold, Assistant Attorney General Petersen, and Jerome M. Feit.
Bernard Dunau argued the cause for appellees. With him on the briefs were Louis Sherman, Thomas X. Dunn, Elihu I. Leifer, Alex W. Wall, and Sam J. D‘Amico.*
MR. JUSTICE STEWART delivered the opinion of the Court.
A one-count indictment was returned in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Loui-
“(a) Whoever in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by robbery or extortion or attempts or conspires so to do, or commits or threatens physical violence to any person or property in furtherance of a plan or purpose to do anything in violation of this section shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.”
“Extortion” is defined in the Act, as “the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear....”
At the time of the alleged conspiracy, the employees of the Gulf States Utilities Company were out on strike. The appellees are members and officials of labor unions that were seeking a new collective-bargaining agreement with that company. The indictment charged that the appellees and two named coconspirators conspired to obstruct commerce, and that as part of that conspiracy, they
“would obtain the property of the Gulf States Utilities Company in the form of wages and other things of value with the consent of the Gulf States Utilities Company . . . such consent to be induced by the wrongful use of actual force, violence and fear of economic injury by [the appellees] and coconspirators, in that [the appellees] and the coconspirators did commit acts of physical violence and destruction against property owned by the Gulf States Utilities Company in order to force said
Five specific acts of violence were charged to have been committed in furtherance of the conspiracy—firing high-powered rifles at three Company transformers, draining the oil from a Company transformer, and blowing up a transformer substation owned by the Company. In short, the indictment charged that the appellees had conspired to use and did in fact use violence to obtain for the striking employees higher wages and other employment benefits from the Company.
The District Court granted the appellees’ motion to dismiss the indictment for failure to state an offense under the Hobbs Act. 335 F. Supp. 641. The court noted that the appellees were union members on strike against their employer, Gulf States, and that both the strike and its objective of higher wages were legal. The court expressed the view that if “the wages sought by violent acts are wages to be paid for unneeded or unwanted services, or for no services at all,” then that violence would constitute extortion within the meaning of the Hobbs Act. Id., at 645. But in this case, by contrast, the court noted that the indictment alleged the use of force to obtain legitimate union objectives: “The union had a right to disrupt the business of the employer by lawfully striking for higher wages. Acts of violence occurring during a lawful strike and resulting in damage to persons or property are undoubtedly punishable under State law. To punish persons for such acts of violence was not the purpose of the Hobbs Act.” Id., at 646. The court found “no case where a court has gone so far as to hold the type of activity involved here to be a violation of the Hobbs Act.” Id., at 645.
I
The Government contends that the statutory language unambiguously and without qualification proscribes interference with commerce by “extortion,” and that in terms of the statute, “extortion” is “the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear....” Wages are the “property” of the employer, the argument continues, and strike violence to obtain such “property” thus falls within the literal proscription of the Act. But the language of the statute is hardly as clear as the Government would make it out to be. Its interpretation of the Act slights the wording of the statute that proscribes obtaining property only by the “wrongful” use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear. The term “wrongful,” which on the face of the statute modifies the use of each of the enumerated means of obtaining property—actual or threatened force, violence, or fear2—would be superfluous if it only served to describe the means used. For it would be redundant to speak of “wrongful violence” or “wrongful force” since,
Construed in this fashion, the Hobbs Act has properly been held to reach instances where union officials threatened force or violence against an employer in order to obtain personal payoffs,4 and where unions used the proscribed means to exact “wage” payments from employers in return for “imposed, unwanted, superfluous and fictitious services” of workers.5 For in those situations, the employer‘s property has been misappropriated. But the literal language of the statute will not bear the Government‘s semantic argument that the Hobbs Act reaches the use of violence to achieve legitimate union objectives, such as higher wages in return for genuine services which the employer seeks. In that type of case, there has been no “wrongful” taking of the employer‘s property; he has paid for the services he bargained for, and the workers receive the wages to which they are entitled in compensation for their services.
II
Congressional disapproval of this decision was swift. Several bills8 were introduced with the narrow purpose of correcting the result in the Local 807 case.9 H. R. 32, which became the Hobbs Act, 60 Stat. 420, eliminated the wage exception that had been the basis for the Local 807 decision.10 But, as frequently emphasized
“This bill is designed simply to prevent both union members and nonunion people from making use of robbery and extortion under the guise of obtaining wages in the obstruction of interstate commerce. That is all it does.
“[T]his bill is made necessary by the amazing decision of the Supreme Court in the case of the United States against Teamsters’ Union 807, 3 years ago. That decision practically nullified the anti-racketeering bill of 1934.... In effect the Supreme Court held that . . . members of the Teamsters’ Union . . . were exempt from the provisions of that law when attempting by the use of force or the threat of violence to obtain wages for a job whether they rendered any service or not.” 91 Cong. Rec. 11900.
Congressman Hancock proceeded to read approvingly from an editorial which characterized the teamsters’ action in the Local 807 case as “compelling the truckers to pay day‘s wages to local union drivers whose services were neither wanted nor needed.” Ibid. Congressman Fellows stressed the fact that the facts of the Local 807
But by eliminating the wage exception to the Anti-Racketeering Act, the Hobbs Act did not sweep within its reach violence during a strike to achieve legitimate collective-bargaining objectives. It was repeatedly emphasized in the debates that the bill did not “interfere in any way with any legitimate labor objective or activity“;12 “there is not a thing in it to interfere in the slightest degree with any legitimate activity on the part of labor people or labor unions ....”13 And Congressman Jennings, in responding to a question concerning the Act‘s coverage, made it clear that the Act “does not have a thing in the world to do with strikes.” Id., at 11912.
Indeed, in introducing his original bill, Congressman Hobbs14 explicitly refuted the suggestion that strike vio-
“Mr. MARCANTONIO. All right. In connection with a strike, if an incident occurs which involves—
“Mr. HOBBS. The gentleman need go no further. This bill does not cover strikes or any question relating to strikes.
“Mr. MARCANTONIO. Will the gentleman put a provision in the bill stating so?
“Mr. HOBBS. We do not have to, because a strike is perfectly lawful and has been so described by the Supreme Court and by the statutes we have passed. This bill takes off from the springboard that the act must be unlawful to come within the purview of this bill.
“Mr. MARCANTONIO. That does not answer my point. My point is that an incident such as a simple assault which takes place in a strike could happen. Am I correct?
“Mr. HOBBS. Certainly.
“Mr. MARCANTONIO. That then could become an extortion under the gentleman‘s bill, and
“Mr. HOBBS. I disagree with that and deny it in toto.” 89 Cong. Rec. 3213.16
III
In the nearly three decades that have passed since the enactment of the Hobbs Act, no reported case has upheld the theory that the Act proscribes the use of force to achieve legitimate collective-bargaining demands.
The only previous case in this Court relevant to the issue, United States v. Green, 350 U. S. 415, held no more than that the Hobbs Act had accomplished its objective of overruling the Local 807 case. The alleged extortions in that case, as in Local 807, consisted of attempts to obtain so-called wages for “imposed, unwanted, superfluous and fictitious services of laborers....” Id., at 417. The indictment charged that the employer‘s consent was obtained “by the wrongful use, to wit, the use for the purposes aforesaid, of actual and threatened force, violence and fear....” Ibid. The Government thus did not rely, as it does in the present case, solely on the use of force in an employer-employee relationship; it alleged a wrongful purpose—to obtain money from the employer that the union officials had no legitimate right to demand. We concluded that the Hobbs Act could reach extortion in an employer-employee relationship and that personal profit to the extortionist was not required, but our holding was carefully limited to the charges in that case: “We rule only on the allegations of the indictment and hold that the acts charged against appellees fall within the terms of the Act.” Id., at 421.
“We need not consider the normal demand for wages as compensation for services desired by or valuable to the employer. It is enough for this case, and all we decide, that payment of money for imposed, unwanted and superfluous services . . . is within the language and intendment of the statute.” Id., at 892.
Most recently, in United States v. Caldes, 457 F. 2d 74, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was squarely presented with the question at issue in this case. Two union officials were convicted of Hobbs Act violations in that they damaged property of a company with which they were negotiating for a collective-bargaining agreement, in an attempt to pressure the company into agreeing to the union contract. Concluding that the Act was not intended to reach militant activity in the pursuit of legitimate unions ends, the court reversed the convictions and ordered the indictment dismissed.
Indeed, not until the indictments were returned in 1970 in this and several other cases has the Government even sought to prosecute under the Hobbs Act actual or threatened violence employed to secure a union contract “calling for higher wages and other monetary benefits.”19
IV
The Government‘s broad concept of extortion—the “wrongful” use of force to obtain even the legitimate union demands of higher wages—is not easily restricted. It would cover all overtly coercive conduct in the course of an economic strike, obstructing, delaying, or affecting commerce. The worker who threw a punch on a picket line, or the striker who deflated the tires on his employer‘s truck would be subject to a Hobbs Act prosecution and the possibility of 20 years’ imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.20
As we said last Term:
“[U]nless Congress conveys its purpose clearly, it will not be deemed to have significantly changed the federal-state balance. Congress has traditionally been reluctant to define as a federal crime conduct readily denounced as criminal by the States. . . . [W]e will not be quick to assume that Congress has meant to effect a significant change in the sensitive
The District Court was correct in dismissing the indictment. Its judgment is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
MR. JUSTICE BLACKMUN, concurring.
I join the Court‘s opinion. I readily concede that my visceral reaction to immaturely conceived acts of violence of the kind charged in this indictment is that such acts deserve to be dignified as federal crimes. That reaction on my part, however, is legislative in nature rather than judicial. If Congress wishes acts of that kind to be encompassed by a federal statute, it has the constitutional power in the interstate context to effect that result. The appellees so concede. Tr. of Oral Arg. 18-19. But MR. JUSTICE STEWART has gathered the pertinent and persuasive legislative history demonstrating that Congress did not intend to exercise its power to reach these acts of violence.
The Government‘s posture, with its concession that certain strike violence (which it would downgrade as “incidental” and the dissent as “low level,” post, at 418 n. 17), although aimed at achieving a legitimate end, is not covered by the Act, necessarily means that the legislation would be enforced selectively or, at the least, would embroil all concerned with drawing the distinction between major and minor violence. That, for me, is neither an appealing prospect nor solid support for the position taken.
This type of violence, as the Court points out, is subject to state criminal prosecution. That is where it must remain until the Congress acts otherwise in a manner far more clear than the language of the Hobbs Act.
The Court today achieves by interpretation what those who were opposed to the Hobbs Act were unable to get Congress to do. The Court considers primarily the legislative history of a predecessor bill considered by the 78th Congress. The bill before us was considered and enacted by the 79th Congress; and, as I read the debates, the opposition lost in the 79th Congress what they win today. All of which makes pertinent Mr. Justice Holmes’ admonition in Missouri, K. & T. R. Co. v. May, 194 U. S. 267, 270, that “it must be remembered that legislatures are ultimate guardians of the liberties and welfare of the people in quite as great a degree as the courts.”
In United States v. Local 807, 315 U. S. 521, we had before us the Anti-Racketeering Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 979, which made it a crime to use violence respecting interstate trade or commerce to obtain the “payment of money or other valuable considerations,” excluding “the payment of wages by a bona-fide employer to a bona-fide employee.” We held that the exception included demands for unwanted or superfluous services and covered those who wanted jobs, not only those who presently had them.
Congress in the Hobbs Act changed the law. The critical change was the exclusion of the employer-employee clause. The Court said in United States v. Green, 350 U. S. 415, 419: “In the Hobbs Act, 60 Stat. 420, carried forward as
In Green, the Court held that it was an extortion within the meaning of the Act to use force to obtain payment of wages for unwanted and superfluous services. Id., at 417.
Here, the services were not unwanted or superfluous; they were services being negotiated under a collective-bargaining agreement.
The Court relies mostly on the legislative history of a measure covering the same topic which was passed by the previous House but on which the Senate did not act. Two years later, the bill in its present form was enacted. It was a differently constituted House that debated it and the year was 1945 rather than 1943. So the most relevant legislative history, in my view, concerns the 79th Congress, not the 78th.
The fear was expressed in the House that the elimination of the Exception Clause would open up the prospect of labor‘s being prosecuted.1 As a consequence, Congressman Celler sought to amend the measure so as to exempt the use of violence to exact “wages paid by a bona fide employer to a bona fide employee.”2 His precise amendment in that regard would define “property” in the Act as not including “wages paid by a bona fide employer to a bona fide employee.”3 Those who objected said that it would substantially restore the 1934 Act.4
Congressman Biemiller, in speaking for the Celler Amendment said:
“We fear, for example, under the bill as it now
The Celler Amendment was rejected.6
As I read the Congressional Record, Congressman Baldwin spoke for the consensus when he said:
“This bill would not have been presented to the House if organized labor had recognized law and order in striking and in establishing their rights, as they have a right to do. Everyone can remember the taxicab strike in the city of Baltimore, which does not pertain to this bill, where cabs were overthrown, bricks thrown through the windows endangering the lives of people, innocent victims. Those were the tactics of organized labor which you people support outright and which organized labor sanctioned. The leaders were locked up and put in jail for participating in those activities. Yet you stand here on the floor of this House and say they did not do it or they did not know anything about it.
“Mr. Chairman, labor has a right to strike, but when labor perpetrates that sort of thing, they are going far beyond the bounds of reason. Certainly, I do not take the position that labor has not the right to organize or to strike, but when they do so they should abide by the laws of the land and the laws of decency. If they had done that, we would not have this legislation before the House today.”7
“The pending bill will provide for punishing racketeers who rob or extort. There is no justification for labor unions opposing the bill as it constitutes no invasion of the legitimate rights of labor. Robbery and extortion by members of labor unions must be punished. Labor unions owe that much to the public. In demanding the protection of laws, labor unions should urge that those engaged in legitimate interstate commerce be protected from robbery and extortion.”8
Congressman Celler offered another amendment which would give as a defense to a charge under the Hobbs Act that the employee “did not violate the provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, the Clayton Act, or the Railway Labor Act, or the National Labor Relations Act.”9 But that amendment was also voted down;10 the only provision of the Hobbs Act which touched on that problem was
Congressman LaFollette offered an amendment which would keep the 1934 Act intact but would bar the use of violence by a person not a bona fide employee to obtain
In the present case, violence was used during the bargaining—five acts of violence involving the shooting and sabotage of the employer‘s transformers and the blowing up of a company transformer substation. The violence was used to obtain higher wages and other benefits for union members. The acts literally fit the definition of extortion used in the Hobbs Act,
Congressman Lemke said in the House debates on the Hobbs Act, which he opposed, “The minority is generally right.”14
Whatever may be thought of the policy which the Court today embroiders into the Act, it was the minority view in the House and clearly did not represent the consensus of the House. No light is thrown on the matter by the Senate, for it summarily approved the House version of the bill.15
It is easy in these insulated chambers to put an attractive gloss on an Act of Congress if five votes can be obtained. At times, the legislative history of a measure is so clouded or obscure that we must perforce give some meaning to vague words.16 But where, as here, the consensus of the House is so clear, we should carry out its purpose no matter how distasteful or undesirable that policy may be to us,17 unless of course the Act oversteps
While we said in Kirschbaum Co. v. Walling, 316 U. S. 517, 522, that it is “retrospective expansion of meaning which properly deserves the stigma of judicial legislation,” the same is true of retrospective contraction of meaning.
I would reverse.