Allgeyer v. Louisiana

Allgeyer v. Louisiana
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 6, 1897
Decided March 1, 1897
Full case nameE. Allgeyer & Co. v. Louisiana
Citations165 U.S. 578 (more)
17 S. Ct. 427; 41 L. Ed. 832; 1897 U.S. LEXIS 1998
Case history
PriorTrial court held for defendant, Allgeyer. Louisiana Supreme Court reversed. 48 La. Ann. 104.
Holding
  1. States may not prohibit citizens from contracting insurance out of state for acts performed outside the state.
  2. States may not prohibit citizens from contracting insurance out of state by written communication, even if the property to be insured is within the state.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Melville Fuller
Associate Justices
Stephen J. Field · John M. Harlan
Horace Gray · David J. Brewer
Henry B. Brown · George Shiras Jr.
Edward D. White · Rufus W. Peckham
Case opinion
MajorityPeckham, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U.S. 578 (1897), was a landmark case of the Supreme Court of the United States in which a unanimous bench struck down a Louisiana statute for violating an individual's liberty of contract.[1] It was the first case in which the Supreme Court interpreted the word liberty in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to mean economic liberty. The decision marked the beginning of the Lochner era[2] during which the Supreme Court struck many state regulations for infringing on an individual's right to contract. The Lochner era lasted 40 years and ended when West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish was decided in 1937.[3]

  1. ^ Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U.S. 578 (1897).
  2. ^ See Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905).
  3. ^ West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379 (1937).