in the late 1800s as the labor movement
took hold in the United States many
states passed legislation to protect
workers one such law passed in New York
in 1897 and known as the bakeshop
act cap the number of hours Baker's were
permitted to work on a daily and weekly
basis the state of New York the
plaintiff indicted bakery owner Joseph
Lochner the defendant twice under the
bakeshop Act for permitting an employee
to exceed the maximum allowable 60-hour
workweek Lochner was convicted and fined
by the county court Lochner his
conviction was affirmed by the Appellate
Division of the New York Supreme Court
and New York's highest court the Court
of Appeals Lochner appealed to the
United States Supreme Court Lochner
argued that the bakeshop Act was
unconstitutional first Lochner argued
that the bakeshop Act was not a
legitimate use of the state's police
power meaning the power to regulate for
the protection of health safety and
welfare because bakeries were not the
kind of businesses that required that
sort of oversight
additionally Lochner argued that the Act
interfered with the freedom to contract
for a person's labor protected by the
Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment
just as Peckham writing for the majority
agreed with Lochner and struck down the
bakeshop Act is unconstitutional the
court held that the New York statute
unlawfully interfered with the right to
contract to buy or sell labor which was
a protected liberty interest under the
Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause
additionally the court threw a
distinction between the bakeshop act and
other labor laws that had previously
been upheld such as those regulating
working conditions for mining operations
the court did not believe that the act
was needed in the baking industry to
safeguard public health because the
baking industry was not inherently
unhealthy and therefore the statute was
an unreasonable unnecessary and
arbitrary interference with the right of
the individual to his personal liberty
Justice Holmes wrote a now-famous
dissent to say that the majority's
holding went too far in imposing a
particular economic theory on the
Constitution
Holmes argued that the accident of our
finding certain opinions natural and
familiar or novel and even shocking
ought not to conclude our judgment upon
the question whether statutes embodying
them conflict with the Constitution
ultimately Holmes said that so long as a
fundamental right was not violated the
people's will should not be struck down
justice Harlan argued that deference
should have been given to the New York
Legislature's decision to limit Baker's
hours and pointed out potential factual
foundations for the statute such as the
poor air quality and intense heat inside
bakeries which causes numerous health
problems for bakers thus Harlan felt the
New York law should have been upheld the
Lochner era Supreme Court struck down a
number of economic regulations based on
the doctrine of substantive due process
the Lochner Court took the view that the
doctrine limited the ability of states
to exercise their police powers in a way
that interfered with individual
liberties such as the right to contract
for example the court overturned minimum
wage laws and laws prohibiting
yellow-dog contracts which were
contracts in which employees agreed
never to join a union the Lochner
decision was explicitly overturned in
1937 by West Coast Hotel versus Parrish
and since then state's economic
regulations have been assessed by courts
under the much more deferential rational
basis review if you found this video
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