HAGUE v. CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS 307 U.S. 496 (1939)

In separate opinions yielding no majority, over two dissents, and with only seven Justices participating, the Court enjoined enforcement of a local ordinance used to harass labor organizers. Justices OWEN ROBERTS and HUGO L. BLACK and Chief Justice CHARLES EVANS HUGHES deemed the right to organize under and discuss the WAGNER (NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS) ACT a privilege or immunity of national CITIZENSHIP. Justices HARLAN FISKE STONE and STANLEY F. REED held it a right protected by the FIRST AMENDMENT. Justice Stone's separate opinion, which suggested that SECTION 1983's jurisdictional counterpart authorized federal courts to hear actions involving personal liberty but not to hear actions involving property rights, influenced subsequent CIVIL RIGHTS cases. Some courts accepted the distinction and applied the dichotomy to section 1983 itself. Lynch v. Household Finance Corp. (1972) discredited the distinction.