Lochner V. New York Case

I watched the Lochner v. New York case. Before I watched this case, I did some research and thought it wasn’t a really important or meaningful case because it is just a case that bakery owner against the Bakeshop Act law made by New York City. But After watching this video, I totally changed my mind. Just like the reporter said (at 1:30 of the video), “this case brings rise to an era that defined the supreme court for the next thirty years. Randy Barnett, a professor of Georgetown Law School, also showed how important this case was in American political history. He mentioned that (from 2:12 to 2:37) “this case has become a political symbol and it was made into a political symbol by Teddy Roosevelt when he ran for president in 1912, and it was a symbol about how Roosevelt claimed that the court had overreached and overstepped its boundaries to block progressive legislation from being enacted at the state level.” Besides, Paul Kens, a Texas State University professor wrote a book named Lochner v. New York, thought it was the most controversial decision because of two reasons (from 3:42 to 4:20): “one of those reasons is that it had an economic element to it, a conflict between two different decisions.

The other, which focused primarily on capital, individual liberty and individualism. The second reason right alongside was the dispute about who should made the decisions about those states.” I totally agree with his opinion. For the first reason, because of because one group of people thought community was more important than individual liberty. However, another group of people had the totally opposite opinion with them. It was impossible to find a method to keep balance between these two ideas. For the second reason, I think that it should make the decision about those