Commonwealth v. Hunt 4 Metc, 111 (1842) was a landmark legal decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on the subject of labor unions. Before this decision, based on Commonwealth vs. Pullis, labor unions which attempted to 'close' or create an unionized workplace could be charged with conspiracy. However, in March 1842, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that unions were legal organizations and had the right to organize and strike. In 1839, the Boston Journeymen Bootmakers' Society called a strike against all employers who hired non-union members. The leaders of the society, including one Mr. Hunt, were arrested and charged with conspiracy. The municipal courts for Boston found all the defendants guilty, but on appeal Shaw declared that the act of unionization and recognition of that union through strike was legal unless the methods to coerce workers to strike was illegal. Since no threat of force was posed by the union, Shaw sided with the defendants and the Court went with him. Though judges throughout the decade would become more anti-union, Commonwealth v. Hunt served as a legitimizer for non-socialist or non-violent trade unions. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the United States commonwealth of Massachusetts. ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... As a legal term, a conspiracy is an agreement of two or more people to commit a crime, or to accomplish a legal end through illegal actions. ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Lemuel Shaw (January 9, 1781 - March 30, 1861), was a United States jurist. ... 1839 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Boston is a town and small port c. ...

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