Commonwealth v. Hunt

Commonwealth v. Hunt is a Massachusetts Supreme Court case from 1842 involving the issue of labor unions. The case concerned a group of shoemakers in Boston, Massachusetts who banded together in a blue-collar union and organized a series of strikes to obtain better pay and working conditions. After the second strike failed, the leader of the group, Amos Hunt, was charged and convicted of the crime of criminal conspiracy. The court ultimately upheld the conviction, ruling that labor unions have no legal basis and that criminal associations formed with the intent to limit wages constituted a criminal conspiracy under Massachusetts law. The case provided an early precedent for states throughout the country to restrict the rights of labor unions.