ABSTRACT
In Muller v. Oregon, 208 US 412, the US Supreme Court faced the issue of whether the police power of a state to protect the public health, the safety, and the welfare of its citizens could be used to limit the liberty of contract for working women. In Muller the Court unanimously ruled that an Oregon statute prohibiting women from working more than ten hours per day in factories or laundries was constitutional. In doing so, the Court placed limits on the liberty-of-contract doctrine and the requirement of due process protections for economic liberties as applied to women because of their special status as mothers. Justice David J. Brewer's opinion in Muller made note of a nontraditional brief filed in support of the state by Louis D. Brandeis, a prominent Boston attorney who would later become a Supreme Court justice.
