Lochner v. New York

Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court.

New York’s Bakeshop Act prohibited bakers from working more than 60 hours per week or 10 hours per day. Joseph Lochner, a bakery owner, was fined for violating the law. He challenged the statute as an unconstitutional interference with the freedom of contract protected by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

Significance

Justice Peckham’s 5-4 opinion struck down the law, holding that the right to contract freely was a fundamental liberty. The Court found that baking was not an unhealthy enough occupation to justify such a restriction on adult workers. Justice Holmes’s famous dissent argued that the Constitution does not enact Herbert Spencer’s Social Statics and that legislatures should have broad discretion to regulate working conditions. The ‘Lochner era’ (1905-1937) saw the Court invalidate dozens of economic regulations before being repudiated in West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937).

Category

US Federal Case Law