Hammer v. Dagenhart

Question 1

Case Background

Answer 1

• 1916 → Congress passed Child Labor Act
  
  • Prohibited interstate transportation of goods produced by
    
    • children under the age of 14
    • children age 14-16 who work more than 8 hours a day, six days a week or at night

Roland Dagenhart father of two boys who worked at NC cotton mills sued

Question 2

Issue

Answer 2

Whether a federal law prohibiting the interstate transportation of goods produced by child labor violates the commerce clause

Question 3

Holding

Answer 3

Held 5-4 (Day writing) Yes, the real purpose of the law is to regulate the production of goods, which is a local (state) concern. Law violates Commerce Clause and the 10thAmendment

Question 4

What are the Police Powers-esque federal laws?

Answer 4

Federal government argued that
•So long as the regulation targets interstate commerce
•The goal of the regulation can be whatever Congress wants, even if it looks like promoting public health, safety, welfare, or morality

Question 5

Cases backing up Police Powers-esque federal laws

Answer 5

Argument backed up in four precedents
1. Champion v. Ames
2.HippoliteEgg v. United States
3. Hoke v. United States
4. Clark Distilling Co. v. Western Maryland Railway Co.
•Problem of “hold out” states

Question 6

Champion v. Ames

Answer 6

Congress banned the inter-state transportation of lottery tickets

• Conservative Christian push to eliminate gambling
• Upheld by the Supreme Court, even though gambling is a question of morality

Hold out states
•New York was the only state that allowed lottery tickets
•But people across the country could send money through the mail and get lottery tickets back

Question 7

Hippolite Egg Co. v. United States

Answer 7

Upheld the Pure Food and Drug Act
•Signature accomplishment of Teddy Roosevelt
•Prohibited the interstate transport of unlawful food and drugs
•Required product labeling
•Prohibited adding ingredients that would conceal damage, pose a health hazard etc.
•Created what eventually became the FDA

Hold out states
•Railways mean more goods can be shipped cross country

Question 8

Hoke v. United States

Answer 8

• Upheld the Mann Act aka “White Slave Traffic Act”
• Prohibited the interstate transportation of sex workers

Hold out states
-States can ban prostitution but cannot prevent its citizens from traveling across state lines to seek it out

Question 9

Clark Distilling Co. v. Western Maryland Railway Co.

Answer 9

•Upheld a federal ban on the interstate transportation of alcohol

Hold out states
•States can ban sale of booze from in-state and out-of-state sources, but its hard to be effective if out of state booze sneaks in

Question 10

Hold out states and child labor

Answer 10

Fight over child labor was as much about economics and regionalism as it was morality
•Northern states tended to restrict child labor, Southern states tended not to
•Goods produced in Southern states tended to be cheaper (also because African Americans were underpaid in the South)
•Commerce Clause designed to solve national economic problems

Question 11

Day’s gymnastics

Answer 11

The Court was right to uphold laws in Champion, HippoliteEgg, Hoke, and
-Clark Distilling Co., but it would be wrong to uphold Child Labor Act
In each of these instances, the use of interstate transportation was necessary to the accomplishment of harmful results.”
-“The goods [produced by child labor]…are of themselves harmless.”

Question 12

Holmes’ dissent

Answer 12

What about Gibbons v. Ogden do you not understand?
- It’s interstate commerce
- “Congress is given power to regulate such commerce in unqualified terms….”
congress = given power to regulate commerce in unequalified terms, only restriction = interstate in nature + if you don’t like law puy someone in who would repeal it
- Holmes → does nto think morality should enter ? in law → but is one exception to this would be this case