Lochner v. New York: Economic Regulation on Trial

Landmark Law Cases and American Society

by Paul Kens

Lochner 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.

Genres: Law, History, Nonfiction, American History

226 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Paul Kens is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas State University. He received his B.A from Northern Illinois University, his J.D. from the University of Texas in 1971, and his Ph.D in Government from the University of Texas in 1987. He frequently writes on subjects involving legal history, constitutional history, and the history of law in the American West.

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't actually compiled a list of all the nonfiction books under 300 pages that I have read, but I do not doubt that Kens's "Lochner v. New York: Economic Regulation on Trial" was by far the greatest short nonfiction book I have ever read. In fewer than 200 pages Kens discusses New York machine politics, the Supreme Court, the court appeals process, the important political, legal, and economic personalities of the Industrial Revolution, judicial and legal theories, the Fourteenth Amendment, the due process clause, economic regulation in American history, and the specifics of the case at hand with a level of detail necessary to do justice to each topic in a lucid manner. I'm not a lawyer or legal scholar, so I'm not savvy enough to comment on the accuracy of Kens's book, but I think he does a fantastic job. The Industrial Revolution and the many good and bad effects of that powerful force can never be overstated, and the Lochner case, so it seems, brought many of the powerful arguments revolving around the Industrial Revolution to a pinpoint. Thankfully, over a century after that decision was announced to the nation (and not with much excitement at the time), we have Kens to thank for understanding it all. The only complaint I have with this book is the lack of citations. There should be in-text parenthetical sourcing or footnotes. Kens notes that in an earlier, and I'm guessing more scholarly, treatment he has all the citations necessary, but that's still not acceptable for this version. Thankfully there is a fairly thorough bibliographic essay at the end.

[Alison Zoccola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent microhistory of the hugely influential but little-remembered 1905 Supreme Court case Lochner v. New York, where a labor law passed by a progressive state legislature was turned over by a conservative court in the name of "Freedom of Contract." A concise, limber, and information-filled look at Gilded Age America, I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in American history and/or politics.

[John Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview for a college freshman or high school senior. No real in depth discussion.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look into the Landmark case Lochner v New York. It is a well researched book with a look in one of Law's most fabulous decisions ...especially Justice Holmes' dissent, which is a victory of rhetoric as a tool of law. Fabulous. 4 stars.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The research was good. There a lot of what-could-be-called coincidences embedded in the facts of Lochner.

I'm not quite sure what to do with the analysis. It kind of approaches but shies away from revisionism? I don't have a strong feeling of what the book was trying to say based on these rarely discussed/newly discovered facts.