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Adair v. United States

 

 
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Adair v. United States
 
 
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Adair v. United States, , was a United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
 decision that upheld "yellow-dog
Yellow-dog contract

A yellow-dog contract is an agreement between an employer and an employee in which the employee agrees, as a condition of employment, not to be a member of a trade union....
" contracts that forbade workers from joining trade union
Trade union

A trade union or labor union is an organization run by and for workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions....
s.

iam Adair, an official with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, had fired O. B. Coppage for belonging to a labor union
Trade union

A trade union or labor union is an organization run by and for workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions....
. Adair's actions were in direct violation of the Erdman Act
Erdman Act

The United States Congress passed and William McKinley signed the Erdman Act in 1898. The law provided for arbitration for disputes between the interstate railroads and their workers organized into unions....
 of 1898, which at the time prohibited railroads that engaged in interstate commerce from requiring that their employees refrain from membership in a labor union as a condition of employment.

Supreme Court, on a 6-2 decision, held that the Erdman Act was unconstitutional, because it unjustly violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, which guaranteed freedom of contract
Freedom of contract

Freedom of contract or contractualism is the freedom of individuals to bargain among themselves the terms of their own contracts, without government interference....
 and property rights.






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Encyclopedia


Adair v. United States, , was a United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
 decision that upheld "yellow-dog
Yellow-dog contract

A yellow-dog contract is an agreement between an employer and an employee in which the employee agrees, as a condition of employment, not to be a member of a trade union....
" contracts that forbade workers from joining trade union
Trade union

A trade union or labor union is an organization run by and for workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions....
s.

The case

William Adair, an official with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, had fired O. B. Coppage for belonging to a labor union
Trade union

A trade union or labor union is an organization run by and for workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions....
. Adair's actions were in direct violation of the Erdman Act
Erdman Act

The United States Congress passed and William McKinley signed the Erdman Act in 1898. The law provided for arbitration for disputes between the interstate railroads and their workers organized into unions....
 of 1898, which at the time prohibited railroads that engaged in interstate commerce from requiring that their employees refrain from membership in a labor union as a condition of employment.

The decision

The Supreme Court, on a 6-2 decision, held that the Erdman Act was unconstitutional, because it unjustly violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, which guaranteed freedom of contract
Freedom of contract

Freedom of contract or contractualism is the freedom of individuals to bargain among themselves the terms of their own contracts, without government interference....
 and property rights. Furthermore, the court established that Congress' control over interstate commerce did not extend to membership in trade unions. The decision reflects the consistently pro-business slant that the Court took prior to 1910. In 1932, yellow-dog contracts were outlawed
Law of the United States

The law of the United States was originally largely derived from the common law system of English law, which was in force at the time of the American Revolutionary War....
 in the United States under the Norris-LaGuardia Act
Norris-LaGuardia Act

The Norris?La Guardia Act of 1932 was a United States federal law that made yellow-dog contracts, or those in which a worker agreed as a condition of employment that he would not join a trade union, unenforceable in United States federal courts; the common title followed from the names of the sponsors of the legislation: Republican Party...
.

See also



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