Adair v. United States

Adair v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 29, 1907 Decided January 27, 1908
Full case name	William Adair, Plff. in Err. v. United States
Citations	208 U.S. 161 (more) 28 S. Ct. 277; 52 L. Ed. 436; 1908 U.S. LEXIS 1431
Prior history	Error to the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Kentucky
Holding
Section 10 of the Erdman Act which prohibited railroad companies from demanding that a worker not join a union as a condition for employment was unconstitutional because it infringed on the right to liberty of contract under the Fifth Amendment and exceeded Congress' powers under the Commerce Clause.
Court membership
Case opinions
Majority	Harlan, joined by Fuller, Brewer, White, Peckham, Day
Dissent	McKenna
Dissent	Holmes
Moody took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. V U.S. Const. art. I sec. 8 clause 3

Adair v. United States, 208 U.S. 161 (1908), was a US labor law case of the United States Supreme Court which declared that bans on "yellow-dog" contracts (that forbade workers from joining labor unions) were unconstitutional. The decision reaffirmed the doctrine of freedom of contract which was first recognized by the Court in Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897). For this reason, Adair is often seen as defining what has come to be known as the Lochner era, a period in American legal history in which the Supreme Court tended to invalidate legislation aimed at regulating business.

In earlier cases, the Court had struck down state legislation limiting the freedom of contract by using the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which only applied to the states. In Adair the doctrine was expanded to include federal legislation by way of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.

The Erdman Act of 1898, section 10, passed by Congress to prevent to unrest in the railroad labor industry, prohibited railroad companies engaged in interstate commerce from demanding that a worker not join a union as a condition for employment. The law provided for voluntary arbitration of disputes between the interstate railroads and their workers organized into labor unions. It applied to individuals who worked on moving trains which transported freight and passengers between states. Workers who maintained railroad cars, and station clerks, did not come under the statute's jurisdiction. In 1906, William Adair, a master mechanic who supervised employees at the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, fired O. B. Coppage for belonging to labor union called the Order of Locomotive Fireman. Adair's actions were in direct violation of Section 10 of the Erdman Act which made it illegal for employers to "threaten any employee with loss of employment" or to "unjustly discriminate against an employee because of his membership in ... a labor corporation, organization or association." Adair was indicted in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, which upheld the law as constitutional. In a subsequent trial, Adair was found guilty of violating the act and ordered to pay a $100 fine. Adair appealed the District Court's decision to the Supreme Court.