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Lochner Era

 

The time from 1890 to 1937, in which the United States Supreme Court, using a broad interpretation of due process that protected economic rights, tended to strike down economic regulations of working conditions, wages or hours in favor of laissez-faire economic policy.  The namesake case is Lochner v. New York, 198 US 45 (1905), in which the court held invalid a New York statute forbidding employment in a bakery for more than 60 hours per week and 10 hours per day because that regulation interfered with the right of contract between the employer and employee.  The Lochner era ended after President Roosevelt, fed up with the Supreme Court invalidating New Deal policies, threatened to "pack" the court with new appointees.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The statute necessarily interferes with the right of contract between the employer and employees, concerning the number of hours in which the latter may labor in the bakery of the employer. The general right to make a contract in relation to his business is part of the liberty of the individual protected by the 14th Amendment of the Federal Constitution.  Under that provision no state can deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The right to purchase or to sell labor is part of the liberty protected by this amendment . . .

Lochner v. New York 198 U.S. 45, 53 (1905)