Introducing the Problem

These introductory readings provide you with some background: a bit of history; a sense of the current scope of the problem; and some more specific information about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 

But first we will start with a look at three cases that are not normally read as "health and safety" cases: Holden v. Hardy (1898), Lochner v New York (1905) and Martinez-Cuevas v. Deruyter Brothers Dairy (2020). None of these cases involve the administrative regulatory structure that you may associate with health and safety regulation. But all of them do involve worker health and safety. You have of course read Lochner before, but this time read it as a decision that addresses occupational health risks. As you read these cases, in addition to parsing the legal reasoning, think about questions like this: How did this court view issues of safety for workers? What constitutes a “hazard” for workers in the view of the different judges in the  opinions? Why do you think that state constitutions might have these provisions regarding employment or safety? How are different industries viewed by the courts in terms of the need to protect workers from hazards? Has this changed over time? 

In Chapter 2 we will begin our focus on regulatory aspects of this problem, starting with a discussion of how to think about risk, and then looking more specifically at the OSHA standard setting process for health risks.