Loewe v. Lawlor

Appellant

D. E. Loewe

Appellee

Martin Lawlor

Appellant's Claim

That the union of which Martin Lawlor was the business agent, the United Hatters Union of North America, was acting against the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in unlawful restraint of trade by attempting to organize a boycott of Loewe's company, the Danbury Hatters, in order to force Loewe to permit his company to be unionized.

Chief Lawyers for Appellant

James M. Beck, Daniel Davenport

Chief Lawyers for Appellee

John Kimberly Beach, John H. Light

Justices for the Court

David Josiah Brewer, William Rufus Day, Melville Weston Fuller (writing for the Court), John Marshall Harlan I, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joseph McKenna, William Henry Moody, Rufus Wheeler Peckham, Edward Douglass White

Justices Dissenting

None

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

3 February 1908

Decision

That the United Hatters Union was indeed acting in restraint of interstate commerce, even though its activities had actually been limited to a single state, and that union members were personally liable to be sued or fined for the activities of their union.

Related Cases

• Adair v. United States, 208 U.S. 161 (1908).
• Standard Oil Co. v. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1911).
• Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering, 254 U.S. 443 (1921).
• National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1 (1937).

Further Readings

• Bartholomew, Paul C. Summaries of Leading Cases on the Constitution. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1976.
• Furer, Howard. The Supreme Court in American Life, The Fuller Court, 1888-1910, Vol. V. Millwood, NY: Associated Faculty Press, Inc., 1986.
• Hall, Kermit L., ed. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.