United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Labor Board v. Fainblatt, 306 U.S. 601 (1939)

Labor Board v. Fainblatt

No. 514

Argued March 8, 9, 1939

Decided April 17, 1939

306 U.S. 601

Syllabus

1. The National Labor Relations Act is applicable to manufacturers whose product is shipped in interstate commerce under circumstances such that cessation of work by their employees by reason of strikes or labor disputes would result in cessation of the movement of the manufactured product in interstate commerce. Consequently the Act is applicable to employers, not themselves engaged in interstate commerce, who are engaged in a relatively small business of processing materials which are regularly transmitted to them by the owners through the channels of interstate commerce and which, after the processing, are returned to the owner's agent at the factory, and by him shipped to interstate destinations. P. 306 U. S. 604.

2. Whether the materials are owned by the processor and whether they are shipped directly to him or to representatives of the owners at the processor's factory are immaterial. The shipments to and from the factory are none the less interstate commerce because the transportation did not begin or end with the transfer of title of the merchandise transported. P. 306 U. S. 605.

3. The power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce is plenary, and extends to all such commerce, be it great or small. The amount of commerce regulated is of special significance only to the extent that Congress may be taken to have excluded commerce of small volume from the operation of its regulatory measure by express provision or fair implication. P. 306 U. S. 606.

4. In the National Labor Relations Act Congress has set no restrictions upon the jurisdiction of the Board to be determined or fixed exclusively by reference to the volume of interstate commerce involved. P. 306 U. S. 606.

98 F.2d 615 reversed.

Certiorari, 305 U.S. 594, to review a judgment denying a petition of the National Labor Relations Board for enforcement of one of its orders.

Page 306 U. S. 602