Muller V. Oregon Essay

Muller v. Oregon, 208 U.S. 412 (1908), is listed is a landmark decision made in the United States Supreme Court history. This law justifies both sex discrimination and labor laws that were made during that time period. Without theses laws we probably wouldnt have gotten to the point we are at today with labor laws. This ruling set the foundation for the laws we have today on how many hours we can work a day as well as how many hours we can work without break. The case upheld an Oregon law that bared women from working more than 10 hours a day in industrialized jobs. The law was made because Oregon took special interest in protecting women's health, they stated that woman have a child-bearing physiology and social role that made them strongly

Because of this Muller was then convicted of violating Oregon's labor laws by making a female employee work more then 10 hours in a day. Muller was fined and had to pay $10 which was a lot back then (dont we all wish that was the most we had to pay on fines today). Muller then appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court and then the United States Supreme Court. This of course did not work in Muller's favor. Both courts declared the law constitutional and upheld Muller's conviction. With the U.S. Supreme Court the ruling was unanimous with a 9-0 vote, the justices upheld the law. Below I have placed an insert from this

It also shows that making the justices aware of social and economic conditions could help win their approval. The lawyers in Brown v. Board of Education and may other cases followed the path that future supreme court justice, Louis Brandeis who surved from 1916 to 1939 created. Brandeis was additional counsel for the state of Oregon and he entered a huge brief in support of the law that collected supporting data from hundreds of sources. This brief outlined the outcome of working long hours for woman and became known as "Brandeis Brief". The brief became a future model for presenting to the supreme