National Labor Relations Board v. Baptist Hospital, Inc.

Mr. Justice Blackmun,

concurring.

I join the Court’s opinion and its judgment. I write only to underline what is plainly said in the opinion, ante, at 789-790, and n. 16, that these hospital cases so often turn on the proof presented. What may be true of one hospital’s gift shop and cafeteria may not be true of another’s. And I continue to have difficulty perceiving any rational distinction between the Board’s recognition that solicitation is inappropriate in a department store, see Beth Israel Hospital v. NLRB, 437 U. S. 483, 511-512, and nn. 2 and 3 (1978) (Powell, J., concurring in judgment); id., at 508 (concurring opinion), and its contrary presumption with respect to the retail shop (usually operated on a not-for-profit basis) and cafeteria in the hospital. The admonition contained in the last paragraph of n. 16 of the Court’s opinion, ante, at 790, cannot be overemphasized.