Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. v. Florida Gulf Coast Building Trades Council
Citation
485 U.S. 568 (1988)
Facts
A union distributed handbills at a shopping mall urging customers not to patronize any of the mall’s tenants because one tenant had hired a non-union contractor. The mall owner argued the handbilling constituted an unlawful secondary boycott under the NLRA. The NLRB found the handbilling was not a secondary boycott prohibited by the Act.
Issue
Whether the NLRA prohibits peaceful handbilling at a secondary employer’s site urging a consumer boycott, and if so, whether such prohibition would raise serious First Amendment concerns.
Holding
The Court upheld the NLRB’s interpretation that the NLRA did not prohibit the handbilling, applying the constitutional avoidance canon to read the statute narrowly.
Rule
Statutes must be construed to avoid serious constitutional doubts even if not strictly required by the text; when a statute can be read to avoid a serious First Amendment problem, that reading should be preferred.