Adair v. United States

Adair v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 29, 1907
Decided January 27, 1908
Full case nameWilliam Adair, Plff. in Err. v. United States
Citations208 U.S. 161 (more)
28 S. Ct. 277; 52 L. Ed. 436; 1908 U.S. LEXIS 1431
Case history
PriorError to the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Kentucky
Holding
Section 10 of the Erdman Act which prohibited railroad companies from demanding that a worker not join a union as a condition for employment was unconstitutional because it infringed on the right to liberty of contract under the Fifth Amendment and exceeded Congress' powers under the Commerce Clause.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Melville Fuller
Associate Justices
John M. Harlan · David J. Brewer
Edward D. White · Rufus W. Peckham
Joseph McKenna · Oliver W. Holmes Jr.
William R. Day · William H. Moody
Case opinions
MajorityHarlan, joined by Fuller, Brewer, White, Peckham, Day
DissentMcKenna
DissentHolmes
Moody took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. V
U.S. Const. art. I sec. 8 clause 3

Adair v. United States, 208 U.S. 161 (1908), was a US labor law case of the United States Supreme Court which declared that bans on "yellow-dog" contracts (that forbade workers from joining labor unions) were unconstitutional.[1] The decision reaffirmed the doctrine of freedom of contract which was first recognized by the Court in Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897). For this reason, Adair is often seen as defining what has come to be known as the Lochner era, a period in American legal history in which the Supreme Court tended to invalidate legislation aimed at regulating business.[2][3]

In earlier cases, the Court had struck down state legislation limiting the freedom of contract by using the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which only applied to the states. In Adair the doctrine was expanded to include federal legislation by way of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.[4]

  1. ^ Adair v. United States, 208 U.S. 161 (1908). Public domain This article incorporates public domain material from this U.S government document.
  2. ^ Philips, Michael J. The Lochner Court, Myth and Reality: Substantive Due Process from the 1890s to the 1930s. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. p. 10.
  3. ^ Wiecek, William M. The History of the Supreme Court of the United States. Volume 12, The Birth of the Modern Constitution: The United States Supreme Court, 1941–1953. Cambridge University Press, 2006. p. 25 f.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference carter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).