ABSTRACT
In its landmark 1923 decision in Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that Congress could not mandate a national minimum wage. Writing for the majority, Associate Justice George Sutherland held that such laws violate the constitutional guarantee of life, liberty, and property, in that they infringe upon an individual’s right to make a contract of his or her choosing. The case has been viewed by historians as part of a conservative, probusiness backlash to the liberalized labor laws of the Progressive Era before World War I.
