Home > Great American Court Cases > Lochner v. New York

Legal Citation: 198 U.S. 45 (1905)

Appellant
Joseph Lochner

Appellee
People of the State of New York

Appellant's Claim
That Lochner had not violated the New York Bakeshop Act because the law was an unreasonable exercise of police power.

Chief Lawyers for Appellant
Frank Harvey Field, Henry Weismann

Chief Lawyer for Appellee
Julius M. Mayer, attorney general of New York

Justices for the Court
David Josiah Brewer, Henry Billings Brown, Melville Weston Fuller, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joseph McKenna, Rufus Wheeler Peckham (writing for the Court)

Justices Dissenting
William Rufus Day, John Marshall Harlan I, Edward Douglass White

Place
Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision
17 April 1905

Decision
In protecting the right to contract for labor, the Court overruled...