| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | A baker allows an employee to work more than 60 hours in one week. |
| Posture: | None stated. |
| Issue: | Is it within the police power of the state to override an individual's right to labor for such time as he/she might choose? |
| Holding: | No. |
| Rule: | People have freedom of contract, and interfering with that would be a constitutional violation. |
| Reasoning: | This doesn't involve the safety, morals, or welfare of the public. The right to purchase and sell labor is part of the liberty protected by 14A. |
| Dicta: | Even though the ostensible purpose for passing a law like this is
public welfare, it's possble that they get passed for quite
different reasons.
Dissent [Holmes]: 14A does not enact Mr. Herber Spencer's Social Statics. A constitution is not intended to embody a partcular economic theory-- constitutions are made for people of fundamentally differing views. |