Muller vs. Oregon

1291 Words3 Pages

Muller vs. Oregon

As the economic changes swept through America with the Industrial Revolution, so did society and the traditional roles of men and women. These changes hit the lower class women particularly hard because not only did they have to work long hours at a factory; they also had to maintain the household as traditions required of women. With all of these responsibilities that women now had, perhaps the strain hit women because rarely had they been required to do so much. Oregon saw this and created a law in 1903 that stated that women were only allowed to work a maximum of ten hours a day. Similar laws had been passed in other states so it made some people wonder, did the Oregon law violate the women's freedom of contract implicit in the liberty protected by due process?

In other states, people had broken these laws or brought them before the court claiming that the restraint on the number of hours was unconstitutional and the fourteenth amendment was used against the law. Although similar laws had been defeated by the Supreme Court's ruling before Muller v. Oregon, that does not mean that they were previously unconstitutional and did not violate the fourteenth amendment for women's freedom.

The time of the Industrial Revolution allowed little room for smaller companies to make a name because the big businesses had monopolies over certain areas of industry. Therefore, for a person to make a name for himself, he had to do so with ambition, money, reputation, and inner strength. By reason of an owner not possessing these qualities, then by the rigors of business owning he would be mentally crushed by the amount of work that falls upon the owner's shoulders. In addition, even though labor came cheaply to t...

... middle of paper ...

... is subject to proper restraints under the state.

By the evidence thus shown, although federal laws have to be obeyed throughout the United States of America, there are certain areas of law making that are created and regulated at the state level. Brandeis's report on women being different than men showed the Supreme Court a different side of women and their abilities. Even though this lawsuit was to declare the Oregon Stature unconstitutional, it was the first to have laws set on the number of hours allowed to work in a day and showing other states the proper reasoning to make sure that it was not called unconstitutional. "The regulation of her hours of labor falls within the police power of the State, and a stature directed exclusively to such regulation does not conflict with the due process or equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment." (Touro)

Open Document