Railway Mail Assn. v. Corsi, 326 U.S. 88 (1945)

Railway Mail Association v. Corsi

No. 691

Argued April 3, 1945
Decided June 18, 1945
326 U.S. 88

APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK

Syllabus

Section 43 of the New York Civil Rights Law forbids any "labor organization" to deny any person membership by reason of his race, color, or creed, or to deny any member, by reason of race, color, or creed, equal treatment in designation for employment, promotion, or dismissal by any employer; other sections prescribe penalties and enforcement procedure. Appellant Railway Mail Association, an organization of regular and substitute postal clerks, limits its membership to persons of the Caucasian race and native American Indians.

Held:

l. An appeal from a state court declaratory judgment that § 43 was applicable to the appellant and valid as so applied presents a justiciable "case or controversy" under §§ 1 and 2 of Article III of the Federal Constitution. P. 93.

2. Section 43 is not violative of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as an interference with appellant’s right of selection of membership nor as an abridgment of its property rights and liberty of contract. P. 93.

3. The fact that appellant is subject to § 43 as a "labor organization," although excluded (as an organization of government employees) from the benefits of collective bargaining provisions of the state labor law, involves no denial of equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 94.

4. As applied to appellant, § 43 is not repugnant to the provision of Art. I, § 8, cl. 7 of the Federal Constitution, conferring on Congress power over the postal service. P. 95.

5. Congress has not so clearly manifested an intent to occupy the field of regulation of organizations of federal employees as to exclude the state regulation here involved. P. 97.

293 N.Y. 315, 56 N.E.2d 721, affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment upholding the constitutionality of a state law as applied to the appellant association.