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LSU Online POLI 4020 Casebook

Hammer v. Dagenhart

Under its Commerce Power, Congress passed the Child Labor Act of 1916, prohibiting child labor in manufacturing, not directly (which would have violated precedents ruling that production is not commerce), but indirectly, by prohibiting the movement in interstate commerce of goods manufactured using child labor.  The case originated when a father sued for an injunction to block enforcement of the act and allow his sons to work in a mill.