United States v. Enmons,
410 U.S. 396 (1973), was a controversial
United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that violence, if carried out in furtherance of a
labor union's objectives, does not violate the law according to the extortion and robbery provisions of the federal Anti-Racketeering Act of 1934 or the
Hobbs Act.
The case involved a labor strike in which union members fired rifles at three utility company transformers, drained the oil from another, and blew up an entire company substation. The labor union in question was seeking a higher-pay contract and other benefits from their employer, the
Gulf States Utilities Company. The Court decided that the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) was immune from prosecution because their violent acts were in pursuit of a legitimate union objective.