The statute necessarily interferes with the right of contract between the employer and employees.... The general right to make a contract...is part of the liberty of the individual protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.... Under that provision, no State can deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The right to purchase or sell labor is part of the liberty protected by this amendment....
- Justice Peckham, delivering the majority opinion of the Court
It is plain that this statute was enacted in order to protect the physical well-being of those who work in bakeries.... The statute must be taken as expressing the belief of the people of New York that, as a general rule, labor in excess of sixty hours a week...may endanger the health of those who thus labor.... Our duty, I submit, is to sustain the statute as not being in conflict with the Federal Constitution.
- Justice Harlan, in his dissenting opinion
What is one way that political attitudes toward government regulation have changed since the decision in the Lochner case?
