contempt of court, had been granted with
jurisdiction. Conceding, in effect, that there was no statutory warrant
for the injunction, the Court nevertheless validated it on the ground
that the Government was entitled thus to protect its property in the
mails, and on a much broader ground which is stated in the following
passage of Justice Brewer's opinion for the Court: "Every government,
entrusted, by the very terms of its being, with powers and duties to be
exercised and discharged for the general welfare, has a right to apply
to its own courts for any proper assistance in the exercise of the one
and the discharge of the other. * * * While it is not the province of
the Government to interfere in any mere matter of private controversy
between individuals, or to use its granted powers to enforce the rights
of one against another, yet, whenever the wrongs complained of are such
as affect the public at large, and are in respect of matters which by
the Constitution are entrusted to the care of the Nation and concerning
which the Nation owes the duty to all the citizens of securing to them
their common rights, then the mere fact that the Government has no
pecuniary interest in the controversy is not sufficient to exclude it
from the courts, or prevent it from taking measures therein to fully
discharge those constitutional duties."[409]

STATUS OF THE DEBS CASE TODAY

The restrictions imposed by the Norris-LaGuardia Act[410] on the
issuance of injunctions by the federal courts in cases "involving or
growing out of any labor dispute" later cast a shadow of doubt over the
Debs case, which was deepened, if anything, by the Court's decision in
1947, in United States _v._ United Mine Workers.[411] But such doubts
have been since dispelled by the Taft-Hartley Act, which provides that
whenever in his opinion a threatened or actual strike or lockout
affecting the whole or a substantial part of an industry engaged in
interstate commerce will, "if permitted to occur or continue, imperil
the national health or safety," the President may appoint a board of
inquiry and, upon its so finding, "may direct the Attorney General to
petition any district court of the United States having jurisdiction of
the parties to enjoin such strike or lockout or the continuing thereof
* * *," and the Court shall have jurisdiction to do so, provided it
shares the President's view of the situation.[412] Administration and
labor critics of the act did not