The Lochner Era

Before President Roosevelt's New Deal Era of 1937 to today, there was the Lochner Era.

During the Lochner Era, The Court System defended individual's rights against Government Encroachment.

The Supreme Court Case that sealed Lochner Era in history and is still debated in courtrooms and in universities today is Lochner vs New York.

Short Summary:
In Lochner vs New York, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a New York Law that limited the number of hours a baker could work. That is what a New York Legislature attempted. The court held that the "state had no reasonable ground for interfering with liberty by determing the hours of labor for individuals who are free to work as they choose." It found that the law interfered with freedom of contract. It did not serve as a valid police power, and it thus violated the fourteenth amendment's Due Process Claus because it took away property without a trial.

For three decades, the Lochner decision following 1905, almost two hundred state laws that regulated price, labor, and maximum or minumum hours were declared unconstitutional as violating the Due Process Claus of the fourteenth amendment. This decision serves as the yard marker in the ideological battle between the free market Natural Law orginalists and the New Deal regulatory state Positivists.
Below, you will find links that give different points a of view of the Lochner Case during Roosevelts New Deal Era.

What is the 1905 Liberty Of Contract?

Liberty Of Contract-Freedom of choice-is protected by the fourteenth Amendments Due Process Claus is called "Substantive Due Process." "Substantive" means that the fourteenth amendment safeguards more than ones procedural rights to due process under the law, and that any government attempts to legislate away one's natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is strictly prohibited. Put another way, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are themselves protected, not just the means or procedure that the government must use if it wants to take them away.

Lochner vs The People Of State Of New York
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/lochner.html

The Fourteenth Amendment
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment14/

What is the Due Process Claus?
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_duep.html

A review of some Lochner Case Debates After Roosevelts's New Deal Implementation

Abstract: Plessy VS Lochner: The Berea College Case
http://www.law.gmu.edu/assets/files/publications/working_papers/00-13.pdf

A Tale Of Two Lochners
http://www.californialawreview.org/assets/pdfs/97-3/09Jun_Nourse.pdf

David A Bernstein on Cass Susstein and The Lochner Era
http://www.utexas.edu/law/journals/tlr/abstracts/82/82bernstein.pdf

1985: Columbia Review: Cass Susstein: The Lochner Legacy
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1122721

2003: Bush Court Nominee That Wants to Roll Back The New Deal
http://hnn.us/articles/1780.html

2009: Justice Holmes And The Empty Constitution
http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2009-summer/justice-holmes-empty-constitution.asp

2009: Overcoming Lochner in The 21st Century
http://lawreview.richmond.edu/overcoming-lochner-in-the-twenty-first-century/