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Lochner v. New York

Economic Regulation on Trial

Paul Kens

192 pages, 5-1/2 x 8-1/2
Landmark Law Cases and American Society
Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-0918-5, $29.95
Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-0919-2, $12.95

Book Cover ImageLochner v. New York (1905), which pitted a conservative activist judiciary against a reform-minded legislature, remains one of the most important and most frequently cited cases in Supreme Court history. In this concise and readable guide, Paul Kens shows us why the case remains such an important marker in the ideological battles between the free market and the regulatory state.

The Supreme Court's decision declared unconstitutional a New York State law limiting bakery workers to no more than ten hours per day or sixty hours per week. By evoking its "police power," the state hoped to eliminate the employers' abuse of these workers. But the 5–4 majority opinion, authored by Justice Rufus Peckham and renounced by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, cited the state's violation of due process and the "right of contract between employers and employees," which the majority believed was protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Critics jumped on the decision as an example of conservative juidicial activism promoting laissez-faire capitalism at the expense of progressive reform. As series editors Peter Hoffer and N.E.H. Hull note in their preface, "the case also raised a host of significant questions regarding the impetus of state legislatures to enter the workplace and regulate hours, wages, and working conditions; of the role of courts as monitors of the constitutionality of state regulation of the economy; and of the place of economic and moral theories in judicial thinking."

Kens, however, reminds us that these hotly contested ideas and principles emerged from a very real human drama involving workers, owners, legislators, lawyers, and judges. Within the crucible of an industrializing America, their story reflected the fierce competition between two powerful ideologies.

"Kens has hit the mark. He treats complicated matters in ways that make them accessible to general readers and students and tells a terrific story. Teachers of constitutional and legal history will embrace this book."--Kermit Hall, author of The Magic Mirror: Law in American History

"An outstanding volume that deserves a wide audience. Virtually all observers agree that Lochner is one of the most important decisions ever rendered by the Supreme Court. It continues to cast a long shadow over constitutional thought despite the political triumph of the New Deal and the rejection of the liberty of contract doctrine in the late 1930s. Kens's balanced and judicious treatment should contribute greatly to the current dialogue over economic due process and judicial protection of property rights."--James W. Ely, Jr., author of The Guardian of Every Right: A Constitutional History of Property Rights

PAUL KENS is associate professor of political science and history at Southwest Texas State University and the author of Justice Stephen Field: Shaping Liberty from the Gold Rush to the Gilded Age and Judicial Power and Reform Politics: The Anatomy of Lochner v. New York. In 1996 the Supreme Court Historical Society awarded him the Hughes-Gossett Award for Historical Excellence for the best article published in its journal.