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Hammer Vs Dagenhart Essay

1012 Words5 Pages

April 15th, 1918, the Supreme Court gathered to hear the case of Hammer v. Dagenhart. The unusually warm temperature outside reflected the fiery rage of the debate inside the courtroom. As the team of W. C. Hammer, John W. Davis, and Roscoe Pound appealed Roland H. Dagenhart’s claim, the judges analyzed. Child labor was more than common during the Industrial Revolution. Numerous families were forced to send their children to work to put food on the table. This led to children working low-income jobs in dangerous factories and mines all across the country. To say that this is wrong is an understatement. This system is immoral and unethical. The weight of this situation is hard to understand until you realize the weight it holds. According to …show more content…

However, that is where the problem occurs. Roland H. Dagenhart was the father of two boys, aged 15 and 13, at the time of the case. Dagenhart worked in a cotton mill alongside his two sons. He needed them to work, so they could bring more money in. Unfortunately, the new law forced his 15-year-old to have fewer hours and denied his 13-year-old from working. This upset Dagenhart, as he would lose money, so he sued. Roland H. Dagenhart fought this law and claimed it to be unconstitutional, saying that it was, “not a constitutional regulation of commerce”, (Patrick, 157). W. C. Hammer was appointed to refute this claim, as he was the person who would most likely be enforcing this law. He argued that “Congress had constitutional authority under the Commerce Clause to pass and enforce the Keating-Owen child labor law,” (encyclopedia.com/Hammer v. Dagenhart). This sets the stage for the case. On April 15th, 1918, the case was brought before the Supreme Court after the law was found unconstitutional in the district courts. To protect the rights of children, Hammer argued that the Keating-Owen Act was necessary to preserve their

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