Guadalupe Beltran v. State of California, and United Farm Workers of America, Afl-Cio, an Unincorporated Association

Defendants-appellants, the State of California and the United Farm Workers of America, appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs-appellees Guadalupe Beltran, et al. Appellees brought this action seeking, in part, a declaratory judgment that section 1153(c) of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act (“ALRA”), Cal.Lab.Code § 1153(c) (West 1988), is an unconstitutional abridgement of their first amendment rights of speech and association.

The district court granted appellees’ motion for summary judgment, holding that section 1153(c) was unconstitutional on its face. In so holding, the district court refused to abstain under Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 , 91 S.Ct. 746 , 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), and ruled that principles of res judi-cata did not bar appellees’ constitutional claim.

This court granted permission to file this appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (b).

I

The parties stipulated to the facts for purposes of summary judgment. Those facts relevant to our discussion of this appeal are as follows. In January 1979, the collective bargaining agreement expired between Sun Harvest, Inc., an agricultural employer within the meaning of the…