''Adkins v. Children's Hospital'', 261 U.S. 525 (1923), is 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 turn on question ...

opinion An opinion is a judgement, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive, as opposed to facts, which are true statements. Definition A given opinion may deal with subjective matters in which there is no conclusive finding, or it may deal ...

that federal

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...

legislation for women was an unconstitutional infringement of liberty of contract, as protected by the

due process clause A Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibit the deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the federal and state governments, respectively, without due proces ...

of the Fifth Amendment. ''Adkins'' was overturned in '' West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish''..

Facts

In 1918, Congress passed a law to set minimum wages for women and children in the

District of Columbia Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. As in other cases, the question was one of balancing the police power of Congress to regulate working and living conditions with the right of individuals to conduct their own affairs without legislative interference. Children's Hospital and a female elevator operator at a hotel brought the case to prevent enforcement of the act by Jesse C. Adkins and the two other members of a wage board.

Judgment

The Court's decision, by Justice

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

, was that previous decisions (''

Muller v. Oregon ''Muller v. Oregon'', 208 U.S. 412 (1908), was a list of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court. Women were permitted by state mandate fewer working h ...

'', 208 U.S. 412 (1908) and '' Bunting v. Oregon'', 243 U.S. 426 (1917)) did not overrule the holding in '' Lochner v. New York'', 198 U.S. 45 (1905), which protected freedom of contract. The previous decisions, he noted, addressed maximum hours. The present case addressed a minimum wage. The maximum-hour laws left the parties free to negotiate about wages, unlike the present law, which restricted the employer's side of the negotiation. The Court argued that if legislatures were permitted to set minimum wage laws, they would be permitted to set maximum wage laws. Sutherland asserted: Sutherland cited the changes that had occurred in the years since ''Muller'', particularly the Nineteenth Amendment, which guaranteed the right to vote for women. He notes that ''Muller'' and other cases had emphasized differences between men and women as justifying special protection for women, but " nview of the great—not to say revolutionary—changes which have taken place since 'Muller'' in the contractual, political, and civil status of women, culminating in the Nineteenth Amendment, it is not unreasonable to say that these differences have now come almost, if not quite, to the vanishing point."

Dissents

Taft

Chief Justice Taft, dissenting, argued that there was no distinction between minimum wage laws and maximum hour laws since both were essentially restrictions on contract. He noted that ''Lochner''s limitations seemed to have been overruled in ''Muller'' and ''Bunting''.

Holmes

Justice Holmes, also dissenting, noted that there were many other constraints on contract (such as blue laws and

usury Usury () is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in e ...

laws). He cited the standard that he had put forth in ''Lochner'': if a reasonable person could see a power in the Constitution, the Court should defer to legislation that used such a power.

References

Sources

*Bernstein, David E. Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reform. Chapter 4. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. * * *

External links

* * {{US5thAmendment, dueprocess United States Supreme Court cases of the Taft Court United States labor case law United States substantive due process case law 1923 in United States case law Minimum wage law in the United States Overruled United States Supreme Court decisions 1923 in women's history United States Supreme Court cases April 1923 in the United States 1923 in labor relations