Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation v. Florida Gulf Coast Building and Construction Trades Council

The Florida Gulf Coast Building and Construction Trades Council (Gulf Coast) (defendant) distributed handbills to shoppers at a mall owned by DeBartolo (plaintiff), urging a boycott until DeBartolo required only unionized labor on construction projects, in response to a mall tenant's use of a nonunion contractor. DeBartolo complained to the NLRB that the handbilling violated NLRA § 8(b)(4), which bars unions from coercing people in commerce to deter business dealings; the NLRB agreed with DeBartolo based on the statute's literal text, but the court of appeals reversed, characterizing the handbilling as protected consumer publicity rather than coercive secondary activity.