29 U.S.C. § 52
Section 52 · Statutory restriction of injunctive relief
This is § 20 of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 221 court decisions — leading case Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills of Ala. (1957)
Most recently applied in Drabinsky v. Actors' Equity Association (July 2024)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 15 U.S.C. § 17 · 15 U.S.C. § 1 · 29 U.S.C. § 158
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
No restraining order or injunction shall be granted by any court of the United States, or a judge or the judges thereof, in any case between an employer and employees, or between employers and employees, or between employees, or between persons employed and persons seeking employment, involving, or growing out of, a dispute concerning terms or conditions of employment, unless necessary to prevent irreparable injury to property, or to a property right, of the party making the application, for which injury there is no adequate remedy at law, and such property or property right must be described with particularity in the application, which must be in writing and sworn to by the applicant or by his agent or attorney.
And no such restraining order or injunction shall prohibit any person or persons, whether singly or in concert, from terminating any relation of employment, or from ceasing to perform any work or labor, or from recommending, advising, or persuading others by peaceful means so to do; or from attending at any place where any such person or persons may lawfully be, for the purpose of peacefully obtaining or communicating information, or from peacefully persuading any person to work or to abstain from working; or from ceasing to patronize or to employ any party to such dispute, or from recommending, advising, or persuading others by peaceful and lawful means so to do; or from paying or giving to, or withholding from, any person engaged in such dispute, any strike benefits or other moneys or things of value; or from peaceably assembling in a lawful manner, and for lawful purposes; or from doing any act or thing which might lawfully be done in the absence of such dispute by any party thereto; nor shall any of the acts specified in this paragraph be considered or held to be violations of any law of the United States.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
Injunctions, see rule 65, Title 28, Appendix, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure.
Cross References
Applicability of this section and section 53 of this title to the insurance business, see sections 1011 to 1015 of Title 15, Commerce and Trade.
District courts to have jurisdiction to issue writs of injunction to compel compliance or restrain violation of an order of Interstate Commerce Commission, see sections 1336, 2321 et seq. of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure.
Jurisdiction of courts in matters affecting employer and employee, see section 101 et seq. of this title.
Transporting strikebreakers, penalty, see section 1231 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure.