United States v. National Association of Real Estate Boards/Dissent Jackson

by Robert H. Jackson

United States Supreme Court

339 U.S. 485

United States  v.  National Association of Real Estate Boards

 Argued: March 31, 1950. --- Decided: May 8, 1950

Mr. Justice JACKSON, dissenting.

If real estate brokerage is to be distinguished from the professions or from other labor that is permitted to organize, the Court does not impart any standards for so doing.

It is certain that those rendering many kinds of service are allowed to combine and fix uniform rates of pay and conditions of service. This is true of all laborers, who may do so within or without unions and whose unions frequently do include owners of establishments that employ others, such as automobile sales agencies. See, for example, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, etc. v. Hanke, 339 U.S. 470, 70 S.Ct. 773. I suppose this immunity is not confined to those whose labor is manual and is not lost because the labor performed is professional. The brokerage which is swept under the antitrust laws by this decision is perhaps a border-line activity. However, the broker furnishes no goods and performs only personal services. Capital assets play no greater part in his service than in that of the lawyer, doctor or office worker. Services of the real estate broker, if not strictly fiduciary, are at least those of a trusted agent and, oftentimes, advisory as to values and procedures. I am not persuaded that fixing uniform fees for the broker's labor is more offensive to the antitrust laws than fixing uniform fees for the labor of a lawyer, a doctor, a carpenter, or a plumber. I would affirm the decision of the court below.

Notes