1. What constitutional law defense would you offer on behalf of the Sheet Metal Workers’ union?
2. Decide the case. Explain.
The Sheet Metal Workers’ union staged a mock funeral outside a Florida hospital in 2004. One person dressed in a “Grim Reaper” costume carrying a plastic sickle, and four “pall-bearers” carried a prop coffin and handed out leaflets. Various somber tunes played in the background on a portable audio system. The leaflets detailed several malpractice lawsuits against the hospital with the implication that the malpractice was linked to the hospital’s decision to contract with nonunion labor. The demonstration was designed to pressure the hospital, a neutral entity, to stop doing business with the picketers’ actual target, the non-union contractors. The “funeral” was conducted about 100 feet from the entrance and was separated from it by a street, a strip of grass, a hedge, and a parking lot. The hospital filed an unfair labor practice charge against the union claiming the funeral constituted illegal secondary picketing in violation of the NLRA. The NLRB issued an order commanding the union to cease and desist. That decision was reviewed by the federal District of Columbia Court of Appeals.