Lochner, << LOK nuhr, >> v. New York was a 1905 case in which the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the right of employer and employee to contract for working hours without government interference. The decision reflected the view that government should control business and industry as little as possible.
A New York state law limited bakers to a 60-hour workweek. By a 5-to-4 majority, the Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional because it interfered with the “liberty of contract.” This interpretation was a vague idea that some lawyers and judges derived from the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, in a dissenting opinion, said the ruling was based on “an economic theory which a large part of the country does not entertain.” The court retained the same basic theory until 1937, when it began upholding laws regulating the economy.
