The beginnings of the regulatory state:
The rise of substantive due process:
Early battles: worker safety and hours laws Holden v. Hardy – Utah, 1896 (46 P. 756), affirmed, 169 U.S. 366 (1898); In re Morgan – Colorado, 1899 (58 P. 1071)
| The effort necessary to successful mining … [w]hen so extended beneath the surface, in atmosphere laden with gas, and sometimes with smoke, away from the sunlight … might injuriously affect the health of such persons. … We cannot say that this law … is not calculated to promote health.” Broad EP view: “It is not necessary to extend the protection to persons engaged in other pursuits not attended with similar dangers. To them the law would be inappropriate and idle.” - Justice _, in Holden
“The business of operating smelters and working underground mines is purely a private business. It is not affected with a public interest, or devoted to a public use. … [T]his act is an unwarrantable interference with, and infringes, the right of both the employer and employee in making contracts relating to a purely private business, in which no possible injury to the public can result.” - Justice _, in Morgan |
EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 9. ROCKY MOUNTAIN LEGAL HISTORY > 9.1 The Frontier Era (1850-1900) > 9.1.1 Rocky Mountain (1850-1900): Constitutions as Barometers of Political Change > 9.1.2 Rocky Mountains (1850-1900): Water Law for the Arid West > 9.1.3 Rocky Mountains (1850-1900): Civil Rights in the Frontier Rockies > 9.1.4 Rocky Mountains (1850-1900): Railroads in the Rockies > 9.1.5 Rocky Mountains (1850-1900): The Legal Struggle Between Mormons and Gentiles >