Smithfield Foods, Inc. v. United Food & Commercial Workers International Union

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ROBERT E. PAYNE, Senior District Judge.

The Plaintiffs (“Smithfield”) have filed three “Motions for Judgment on the Pleadings” which seek to strike four of the Defendants’ asserted affirmative defenses. In the “Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings on Defendants’ First Amendment Affirmative Defenses” (Docket No. 90), Smithfield contends that the First Amendment does not protect extortionate speech, and that the Noerr-Pennington doctrine does not provide a defense to Smithfield’s claims. Second, in its “Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings on Defendants’ Tortious Interference…