Supreme Court Strikes Down Federal Child Labor Law in Hammer v. Dagenhart

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 on June 3, 1918, in Hammer v. Dagenhart, ruling 5-4 that the federal law exceeded federal authority and represented an unwarranted encroachment on state powers to determine local labor conditions. Justice William R. Day’s majority opinion held that the Commerce Clause did not give Congress the power to regulate working conditions, even though the law prohibited interstate commerce in goods produced by child labor rather than directly regulating production. The Keating-Owen Act had been the first federal statute to restrict child labor, prohibiting interstate sale of goods produced by factories employing children under 14 and mines employing children under 16.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a stinging dissent, arguing that earlier Supreme Court decisions had established Congress enjoyed broad powers to regulate interstate commerce and that the statute did not impinge on states’ rights to regulate their own internal affairs. Holmes pointed out the majority was imposing its own economic and political philosophy rather than following established constitutional interpretation. The decision exemplifies the Supreme Court’s systematic striking down of Progressive Era labor protections under the guise of states’ rights and freedom of contract—the same judicial philosophy that produced Lochner v. New York (1905) and other anti-labor rulings.

Following the Hammer decision, Congress passed a second child labor law in December 1918 as part of the Revenue Act of 1919 (the Child Labor Tax Law), attempting to regulate child labor indirectly through taxation power. The Supreme Court struck down this law as well in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Company (1922). Federal protection of children from industrial exploitation would not be achieved until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, and the Court did not reverse Hammer v. Dagenhart until February 1941. The 22-year gap between the first federal child labor law and effective protection represents one of the most damning examples of judicial capture enabling corporate exploitation—the Supreme Court literally protecting the right of corporations to employ children under dangerous conditions. This case crystallizes how corporate interests captured the judiciary to strike down democratic reforms, a pattern that characterized the entire Progressive Era and beyond.