In Lochner v. New York (1905), the Supreme Court—discovering a right to contract in the Fourteenth Amendment—invalidated a New York statute setting maximum working hours for bakery employees. A century later, Lochner still stands as one of the most widely despised decisions in the Court's entire history. Conservatives denounce it as a prime example of "substantive due process" run wild—judicial invention paving the way for Roe v. Wade and its offspring. With equal fervor, liberals criticize the Lochner Court's perceived attempt to write laissez faire economics into the Constitution. But does Lochner deserve its lousy reputation? Or are these modern perceptions a product of dubious historical scholarship? What exactly is Lochner's legacy?
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