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Commonwealth v. Hunt

In Commonwealth v. Hunt (March 1842), Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw of the Massachusetts Supreme Court held that it was not inherently illegal for workers to organize a union of try to compel recognition of that union by means of a strike.

Later judges were more prepared than Shaw to find unions' methods for enforcing recognition to be illegal, but his decision set an important precedent in establishing the concept that seeking to compel recognition of a union did not in itself constitute a conspiracy.