''Adams v. Tanner'', 244 U.S. 590 (1917), was a
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
case in which the Court held that a Washington state law that prohibited employment agencies was unconstitutional.
Facts
Washington voters passed a ballot initiative, supported by the then Federal Department of Labor, to prohibit private employment agencies charging fees to people seeking work. It read as follows,
The constitutionality of the law was challenged.
Judgment
Majority
Chief Justice White, Justices Day, Van Devanter, Pitney and McReynold held that a ban would breach the principle of due process of law in the deprivation of liberty and property. The ban was arbitrary and oppressive. Mr Justice Reynold said,
Dissent
Justice Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis (; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American lawyer and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.
Starti ...
(with whom Justice Holmes, Clarke and McKenna dissented) laid out in his dissenting judgment why employment agency activities were a legitimate concern. He highlighted sources from US Labor Department giving examples of abuse, attempts in over thirty states to regulate and have free public agencies compete. He stated how all methods short of abolition had ultimately failed (601-9).
In this period, the practice of charging destitute workers upfront fees for finding work was widespread. People might give up their last pennies for the chance of work. Sometimes, agencies made no effort to place the worker, or the work would last a few days and the employer would then split the next fee with the agent to bring in fresh replacements. Justice Brandeis cited from a report to a 1912 Congress Committee.
Mr Justice Holmes and Mr Justice Clarke concurred.
Importance
International Labour Organization policy
Probably inspired by the dissenting judgments in this case, the
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...
's first ever Recommendation took on the views of Justice Brandeis. The Unemployment Recommendation, 1919 (No.1), Art. 1 called for each member to,
The Unemployment Convention, 1919, Art. 2 instead required the alternative of,
In 1933 the
Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention (No.34) formally called for abolition. The exception was if the agencies were licensed and a fee scale was agreed in advance. In 1949 a
new revised Convention (No.96) was produced. This kept the same scheme, but secured an 'opt out' (Art.2) for members that did not wish to sign up. Agencies were an increasingly entrenched part of the labor market. The United States did not sign up to the Conventions. The latest Convention, the
Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 takes a much softer stance and calls merely for regulation.
Supreme Court policy
In ''
Ribnik v. McBride'', 277 U.S. 350 (1928), the Court struck down a similar New Jersey law attempting to regulate agencies, Justices Stone, Brandeis and Holmes dissenting. This is probably no longer good law.
Doubt was placed on the leading dicta of ''Adams v. Tanner'' in ''
Olsen v. State of Nebraska'', 313 U.S. 236 (1941), and ''
Lincoln Union v. Northwestern Co.'', 335 U.S. 525, 535 (1949). In the latter, Mr Justice Black said that ''Adams v. Tanner'' was part of the "constitutional philosophy" that struck down
minimum wages and maximum working hours.
See also
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List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 244
This is a list of the reported in volume 244 of ''United States Reports'', decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1917.
Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 244 U.S.
The Supreme Court is established by Art ...
*''
Olsen v. Nebraska'' (1941)
*
United Kingdom agency worker law
United Kingdom agency worker law refers to the law which regulates people's work through employment agencies in the United Kingdom. Though statistics are disputed, there are currently between half a million and one and a half million agency worke ...
*
Temporary work
Temporary work or temporary employment (also called gigs) refers to an employment situation where the working arrangement is limited to a certain period of time based on the needs of the employing organization. Temporary employees are sometimes ...
Notes
External links
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{{US14thAmendment, dueprocess
1917 in United States case law
United States labor case law
United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the White Court