Muller V. Oregon: The Supreme Court Case Of Brandeis

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In 1908 he took on a case that would forever change the way cases could be present in court. Representing Oregon in the case Muller v. Oregon, Brandeis once again found himself in front of the Supreme Court. At issue was whether it was constitutional for a state law to limit the hours that female workers could work. Discovering a flaw in the current statue that considered it unreasonable infringement of freedom of contract between employers and their employees for a state to set any wages or hours legislation. By reviewing previous cases where the contract was limited when factors of a real or substantial relation to public health or welfare were at hand (The Brandeis Brief). He therefore decided that the best way to present the case would be to demonstrate workplace facts that had a clear correlation between health and morals of female workers and the hours they worked. The presentation of facts is best known today as the Brandeis Brief. In his case presentation there were over 100 …show more content…

Brandeis’s admiration for Wilson was solidified after his first meeting with Wilson in a New Jersey conference where Brandeis was able to discuss economic issues (Sunlight Intern). After winning the election President Wilson gave Brandeis a significant role in the creation of the Federal Reserve Act the Congress enacted in December 1913. Several years later on January 29, 1916 Wilson nominated Brandeis to become a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. The controversy surrounding Brandeis’s nomination was so great that the Senate Judiciary Committee, for the first time in its history, held a public hearing on the nomination, allowing witnesses to appear before the committee and offer testimony (Supreme Court). Forty-four Democratic Senators and three Republicans voted in favor of confirming Brandeis, leaving twenty-one Republican Senators and one Democrat who voted against him (Supreme