## Facts

- The National Organization for Women, Inc. (NOW) organized a nationwide “convention boycott” urging organizations not to hold conventions in states that had not ratified the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
- Missouri alleged the boycott caused conventions to relocate to ratifying states, reducing revenue for Missouri hotels, motels, restaurants, and the state economy.
- Missouri sued as a sovereign under § 1 of the Sherman Act, characterizing the boycott as a concerted refusal to deal restraining interstate commerce in the convention and tourism markets.
- NOW asserted the boycott was political advocacy designed to influence legislative action, not commercial conduct seeking market advantage, and thus should not trigger antitrust liability.
- The district court dismissed the complaint; Missouri appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether § 1 of the Sherman Act applies to a politically motivated boycott organized by noncompetitors and aimed at influencing state legislative action (ERA ratification).
2. Whether, even if the conduct has economic effects, it is exempt from antitrust liability as petitioning activity protected by the First Amendment and related doctrines.

## Decision

- The Eighth Circuit affirmed dismissal of Missouri’s Sherman Act claim.
- The court held Congress did not intend the Sherman Act to reach this type of politically motivated boycott.
- The court treated the boycott as collective political activity directed at influencing government action, implicating First Amendment petitioning protections, rather than a commercial conspiracy restraining trade.

## Legal Principles

- Sherman Act § 1 is directed at commercial restraints of trade; it is not ordinarily construed to regulate political campaigns that use economic pressure to influence governmental decision-making.
- A boycott organized by noncompetitors to achieve political or legislative objectives, without pursuit of commercial market advantage, falls outside the intended scope of § 1.
- Joint efforts to influence government action are generally protected from antitrust liability under the right to petition principles associated with Noerr-Pennington, and antitrust statutes should be interpreted to avoid chilling such political advocacy.

## Conclusion

The Eighth Circuit concluded that a convention boycott aimed at pressuring state legislatures to ratify the ERA, organized by actors who were not market competitors of the affected businesses, was not within Congress’s intended reach for Sherman Act § 1 and was aligned with protected petitioning activity; therefore, Missouri’s antitrust complaint was properly dismissed.


Missouri v. Nat'l Org. for Women, Inc., 620 F.2d 1301 (8th Cir. 1980)