International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots v. Brown

Labor unions have a statutory duty to distribute campaign literature to their membership in response to the reasonable request of any candidate for union office. In this case the union denied such a request because the candidate wanted the literature mailed in advance of the union’s nominating convention and a union rule prohibited such preconvention mailing. The question presented is whether a court must evaluate the reasonableness of the union’s rule before it decides whether the candidate’s request was reasonable. Like the Court of Appeals and the District Court, we conclude that the…