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. …
U.S. Supreme CourtJustice William R. DayJustice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.supreme-courtchild-laborlabor-rightsjudicial-captureprogressive-era
The Supreme Court ruled that federal courts could issue injunctions against union organizing efforts at workplaces where employees had signed yellow-dog contracts, dramatically expanding the legal weapons available to employers. Justice Mahlon Pitney’s 6-3 majority opinion held that union …
Supreme Court of the United StatesJustice Mahlon PitneyUnited Mine Workers of AmericaHitchman Coal and Coke Companylabor-suppressionjudicial-captureprogressive-erayellow-dog-contractsinjunctions
A federal court sentenced AFL President Samuel Gompers to one year in prison, Vice President John Mitchell to nine months, and Secretary Frank Morrison to six months for contempt of court in the Buck’s Stove and Range Company boycott case. The case exemplified how federal courts had become …
Samuel GompersJohn MitchellFrank MorrisonAmerican Federation of LaborBuck's Stove and Range Company+1 morelabor-suppressionjudicial-captureprogressive-eraantitrustinjunctions
The Supreme Court unanimously upheld an Oregon law limiting women’s workdays to ten hours in Muller v. Oregon, creating a narrow exception to the anti-labor Lochner doctrine. Attorney Louis Brandeis filed a revolutionary 113-page brief containing only two pages of legal argument and over 100 …
Supreme Court of the United StatesLouis BrandeisCurt MullerOregon LegislatureNational Consumers Leaguelabor-rightsjudicial-captureprogressive-eragender-discriminationworking-conditions
The U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously 9-0 in Loewe v. Lawlor (the “Danbury Hatters’ Case”) that the Sherman Antitrust Act applies to labor unions and that individual union members can be held personally liable for damages caused by union boycotts. Chief Justice Melville W. …
U.S. Supreme CourtChief Justice Melville W. FullerUnited Hatters of North AmericaD.E. Loewe & CompanyMartin Lawlor+1 morelabor-suppressiongilded-agesupreme-courtantitrust-misusejudicial-capture+1 more
The Supreme Court struck down Section 10 of the Erdman Act, which prohibited railroads engaged in interstate commerce from requiring workers to sign “yellow-dog contracts” - agreements not to join labor unions as a condition of employment. Justice John Marshall Harlan, who had dissented …
Supreme Court of the United StatesJustice John Marshall HarlanWilliam AdairLouisville and Nashville Railroadlabor-suppressionjudicial-captureprogressive-erayellow-dog-contractsrailroad-labor
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in Lochner v. New York on April 17, 1905, striking down a New York law that limited bakery workers to a 60-hour work week as unconstitutional. Justice Rufus Peckham’s majority opinion held that the law violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due …
U.S. Supreme CourtJustice Rufus PeckhamJustice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.Justice John HarlanJoseph Lochnersupreme-courtlabor-rightscorporate-powerjudicial-captureprogressive-era+1 more
The U.S. Supreme Court issues a unanimous 9-0 decision in In re Debs, upholding the federal government’s use of injunctions to suppress labor strikes and affirming Eugene V. Debs’s contempt of court conviction for continuing the 1894 Pullman Strike in violation of a federal court order. …
U.S. Supreme CourtJustice David Josiah BrewerEugene V. DebsFederal judiciaryCorporate interestslabor-suppressiongilded-agejudicial-captureinjunctionsupreme-court+1 more
On January 21, 1895, the U.S. Supreme Court decided United States v. E.C. Knight Co. (156 U.S. 1) by a vote of 8-1, effectively gutting the Sherman Antitrust Act just five years after its passage. The case arose when the American Sugar Refining Company (the “Sugar Trust”) acquired four …
The Supreme Court declares the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional in an 8-1 decision, ruling that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments do not empower Congress to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals—thereby legitimizing the Jim Crow system of racial segregation that will …
U.S. Supreme CourtJoseph P. BradleyJohn Marshall Harlanjudicial-capturecivil-rights-destructionreconstruction-sabotageinstitutional-racismwhite-supremacy
The Supreme Court unanimously overturns the federal convictions of Colfax Massacre perpetrators in United States v. Cruikshank, ruling that the Bill of Rights does not limit private actors or state governments despite the Fourteenth Amendment—effectively destroying federal power to protect Black …
U.S. Supreme CourtJoseph P. BradleyColfax Massacre Perpetratorsjudicial-capturereconstruction-sabotagecivil-rights-destructionwhite-supremacyinstitutional-capture
On November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony voted in the presidential election between Ulysses S. Grant and his opponent in Rochester, New York, along with 14 other women, in a deliberate act of civil disobedience designed to test whether the 14th Amendment granted women voting rights as citizens. Four …
Susan B. AnthonyWard HuntJohn Van VoorhisSylvester LewisUlysses S. Grantwomens-suffragejudicial-capturecivil-disobedienceconstitutional-lawdemocratic-exclusion
President John Adams signs the Judiciary Act of 1801 less than three weeks before the end of his term and the Federalist majority in Congress, expanding the federal judiciary by creating sixteen new circuit court judgeships and reducing the Supreme Court from six to five justices. After losing the …
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