Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U.S. 251 (1918) was a United States Supreme Court decision involving child-labor laws.

Background

Unable to legislate hours and working conditions for child labor within individual states, Congress sought to regulate child labor by banning the product of that labor from interstate commerce. A 1916 law prohibited interstate commerce of any merchandise that had been made by children under the age of fourteen, or merchandise that had been made in factories where children between the ages of 14 and 16 worked for more than eight hours a day, worked overnight, or worked more than six days a week. Roland Dagenhart, who worked in a cotton mill in Charlotte, NC with his two sons, sued, arguing that this law was unconstitutional

The Issue

Does Congress have the right to regulate commerce of goods that are manufactured by children under the age 14, as specified in the Keating-Owen Act of 1916, and Is it within the authority of Congress in regulating commerce among the states to prohibit the transportation in interstate commerce of manufactured goods by the child labor description above?

The Decision

Justice Day with the Majority Opinion said, that Congress does not have the right to regulate commerce of goods that are manufactured by children, therefore voiding the Keating-Owen Act of 1916. The Court maintains that the issue is not a moral one and further raises the question of federal control of morality.

It is purely of state authority and it violates the constitution in two ways. first, it transcends the authority delegated to congress over commerce. second, congress exerts power as to purely local matter to which the federal authority does not extend.

External links

• Full text of the decision courtesy of Findlaw.com