Brandenburg v. Metropolitan Package Store Ass'n

29 Misc. 2d 817, 211 N.Y.S.2d 621, 48 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2462, 1961 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3495, 1 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 9669
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 26, 1961
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 29 Misc. 2d 817 (Brandenburg v. Metropolitan Package Store Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brandenburg v. Metropolitan Package Store Ass'n, 29 Misc. 2d 817, 211 N.Y.S.2d 621, 48 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2462, 1961 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3495, 1 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 9669 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1961).

Opinion

Irving H. Saypol, J.

This motion as an application to adjudge and punish the respondent John H. Young for criminal contempt (Judiciary Law, art. 19 [Contempt], §§ 750, 781; § 750, subd. 3) is granted. Involving as it does the liberty of the individual, the rule strictissimi juris controls (21 CarmodvWait, New York Practice, Contempt Proceedings, § 4, pp. 161-163; cf. Matter of Kaplan [Blumenfeld], 8 N Y 2d 214, 219, per Desmond, Ch. J.; but see United States v. Mine Workers, 330 U. S. 258, 293, quoted and applied in Mount Sinai Hosp. v. Davis, 8 A D 2d 361, 363-364, also controlling). The respondent is found guilty on two counts of “ despising * * * the authority, justice [and] dignity of the court ” (21 (JarmodyWait, op. cit., § 1, p. 157, citing 12 Am. Jur., Contempt, § 2, }). 389). The punishment will be imposed on the return of the order together with the mandate to be settled hereon. If the respondent desires a hearing as to his punishment, it will bo granted if he so requests.

There smoulders among us an unlawful condition both distressing and disgraceful. In Harlem, negro leaders, civic, political and clerical, and the local branch of an association dedicated to promoting the lot of their fellows, including elimination of racial discrimination, are fomenting racial discrimination against white men. To the respondent John H. Young and to those individuals and the groups who are led by Young and his fellows, its implications, the sting and degradation, are meaningful. (Sokolsky, Negro Question Has World-Wide Impact, Neiv York Journal-American, Dec. 8,1960; Lewis, Court Broadens Desegregation, Sunday Neiv York Times, Dec. 11, 1960, p. 6E.) They have been its victims. His fellows will not be named, for they are not brought into this proceeding. But as Negroes they know fully what racial discrimination is. And yet as men of dark skin they agitate by word and action— [819]*819speech, print, boycott and picketing: — to deprive white men of their livelihoods solely because they are white skinned, so as to replace these victims with their selected Negroes. The respondent here and his absent fellows may well ponder the late Governor Alfred E. Smith’s paraphrase distinguishing mortal and venial sin — “ venial to kid the other fellow, mortal to kid yourself”. In that setting, Father Robert I. Gannon’s dislike of the word “ tolerance ”, saying that he wanted acceptance, not just tolerance, should give much food for thought.

This disturbance has its analogue in Hughes v. Superior Court (339 U. S. 460 [1950]). At page 461, the court, per Frankfurter, J., posed this question: ‘1 Does the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution bar a State from use of the injunction to prohibit picketing of a place of business solely in order to secure compliance with a demand that its employees be in proportion to the racial origin [Negro] of its then customers? Such is the broad question of this case.”

Hughes (supra) affirmed the judgment of contempt of California’s Supreme Court, quoting (pp. 463-464) with approval from the opinion of the lower court: “ ‘ It was just such a situation— an arbitrary discrimination upon the basis of race and color alone, rather than a choice based solely upon individual qualification for the work to be done — which we condemned in the Marinship case, supra (25 Cal. 2d 721, 737, 745). The fact that those seeking such discrimination do not demand that it be practiced as to all employees of a particular employer diminishes in no respect the unlawfulness of their purpose; they would, to the extent of the fixed proportion, make the right to work for Lucky dependent not on fitness for the work nor an equal right of all, regardless of race, to compete in an open market., but, rather, on membership in a particular race. If petitioners were upheld in their demand then other races, white, yellow, brown and red, would have equal rights to demand discriminatory hiring on a racial basis. Yet that is precisely the type of discrimination [against Negroes] to which petitioners avowedly object.” ’ 32 Cal. 2d at 856,198 F. 2d at 889.” The precise holding of Hughes (supra, p. 466) on the authority of Giboney v. Empire Stor. & Ice Co. (336 U. S. 490) is that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States does not preclude California from securing respect for its policy against inyoluntary employment on racial lines by prohibiting systematic picketing that would subvert that policy. Mr. Justice Reed in a six-line paragraph pithily phrased his concurrence on the authority of Giboney (supra) saying (p. 469) that “ [He] read the opinion of the Supreme Court of California [820]*820to hold that the pickets sought from Lucky Stores, Inc., discrimination in favor of persons of the Negro race, a discrimination unlawful under California law. Such picketing may be barred by a State. ’ ’

Acts to compel another to violate the law of the State and its public policy are against the law (Giboney v. Empire Stor. & Ice Co., 336 U. S. 490, 503, supra). The right to speak is not absolute. The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right to persuade others to violate the law (Bullock v. United States, 265 F. 2d 683, 694, citing Kasper v. Brittain, 245 F. 2d 92, cert, denied 355 U. S. 834, rehearing denied 355 U. S. 886).

A court may enjoin picketing intended to promote an unlawful objective, such as attempted violation of the policy of its State (Teamsters Union v. Vogt, Inc., 354 U. S. 284, citing and quoting Hughes, supra).

An injunctional order issued by the court must be obeyed, however it may seemingly be challenged as invalid. So only, may the dignity of courts be maintained and constitutional rights be ab initio preserved (Mount Sinai Hosp. v. Davis, 8 A D 2d 361, 363, supra; Gompers v. Buck Stove & Range Co., 221 U. S. 418, 450; Kasper v. Brittain, 245 F. 2d 92, 96-97, supra, citing Howat v. Kansas, 258 U. S. 181, 189; United States v. Mine Workers, 330 U. S. 258, 293; Amalgamated Clothing Workers v. Richman Bros. Co., 211 F. 2d 449, 452).

The public policy of this State condemns racial discrimination. “ No person shall, because of race, color, creed or religion, be subjected to any discrimination in his civil rights”. (N. Y. Const., art. I, § 11, adopted by Constitutional Convention of 1938; approved by the People, Nov. 8, 1938.) The opportunity to obtain employment without discrimination because of race or color is recognized and declared to be a civil right (Executive Law, art.

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29 Misc. 2d 817, 211 N.Y.S.2d 621, 48 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2462, 1961 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3495, 1 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 9669, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brandenburg-v-metropolitan-package-store-assn-nysupct-1961.