Which U.S. Supreme Court case ruled that the federal government could not ban child labor?

Which U.S. Supreme Court case ruled that the federal government could not ban child labor? The answer is Hammer v. Dagenhart.

Decided in 1918, Hammer v. Dagenhart struck down the Keating–Owen Child Labor Act of 1916. That law barred interstate shipment of goods produced in factories employing children below specified ages or working excessive hours. The Court’s majority held that Congress could not use its power to regulate interstate commerce to control local manufacturing labor conditions.

The case was brought by Roland Dagenhart, whose sons worked in a North Carolina cotton mill. Justice William R. Day wrote the majority opinion, while Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. dissented. Holmes argued that Congress could regulate goods entering interstate commerce even if the goods were made under objectionable labor conditions.

The ruling did not permanently settle the issue. The Court later reversed course in United States v. Darby Lumber Co. (1941), upholding federal labor standards under a broader interpretation of the Commerce Clause. That later case overruled Hammer, making Hammer a famous example of the Court’s earlier limits on federal economic power.