The Least Dangerous Branch? · Episode 6 of 13 · 40 min
The Lochner Era: When the Court Struck Down Child-Labor Laws
For roughly 40 years the Supreme Court struck down minimum-wage, maximum-hour and child-labor laws in the name of 'liberty of contract,' a right found nowhere in the text. The episode covers Lochner, Hammer v. Dagenhart and Adkins, and Justice Holmes's dissent that the 14th Amendment does not enact one economic theory. It is activism from the right, the mirror of what critics later attacked from the left.
Who's who
- Joseph LochnerUtica bakery owner fined over his employee's hours
- Rufus W. PeckhamWrote the 5-4 Lochner majority
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.+3 more episodesGreat dissenter against 'liberty of contract'
- William R. DayWrote Hammer v. Dagenhart striking the child-labor law
- George SutherlandWrote Adkins; leader of the Four Horsemen
- Elsie ParrishWashington chambermaid whose suit ended the era
- Owen J. Roberts+1 more episodePivotal vote in West Coast Hotel
- Charles Evans Hughes+1 more episodeChief Justice who wrote West Coast Hotel
Timeline
- 1897Allgeyer v. Louisiana recognizes 'liberty of contract.'
- 1905Lochner v. New York strikes a 60-hour cap on bakers' work, 5-4.
- 1918Hammer v. Dagenhart strikes the federal child-labor law, 5-4.
- 1923Adkins v. Children's Hospital strikes a D.C. minimum wage for women.
- 1937West Coast Hotel v. Parrish upholds a state minimum wage and overrules Adkins.
Still debated
Historians split on whether Lochner was sincere liberty jurisprudence or pro-business favoritism. The popular 'switch in time' story is also complicated by Roberts voting to uphold the Washington law in December 1936, before the packing plan.
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