Which U.S. Supreme Court case upheld Congress’s power to regulate wages and hours under the Commerce Clause in 1941?

United States v. Darby Lumber Co. upheld Congress’s power to regulate wages and hours under the Commerce Clause in 1941.

The case concerned the Fair Labor Standards Act and a Georgia lumber company that challenged federal rules governing minimum wages and maximum hours. In 1941, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Act’s core provisions and rejected the earlier reasoning of Hammer v. Dagenhart.

The Court held that Congress could regulate interstate commerce and could restrict the shipment of goods produced under labor conditions Congress considered harmful to that commerce. It also upheld federal regulation of wages and hours for employees engaged in interstate commerce or in producing goods for it.

Darby is an important constitutional labor-law decision because it confirmed the broad New Deal interpretation of federal commerce power. It did not itself establish the wage amount; instead, it upheld Congress’s authority to create and enforce the statutory wage-and-hour system.