Lochner era

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The Lochner era was a period in American legal history from around 1900 to 1937 in which the Supreme Court of the United States is said to have made it a common practice "to strike down economic regulations adopted by a State based on the Court's own notions of the most appropriate means for the State to implement its considered policies". The court did this by using its interpretation of substantive due process to strike down laws held to be infringing on economic liberty or private contract rights. The era takes its name from Lochner v. New York (1905), but may also be seen to begin with Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897). The end is usually defined as coinciding with the overturning of a Lochner-era decision in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish (1937). The Supreme Court during the Lochner era has been described as "play[ing] a judicially activist but politically conservative role". The Court sometimes invalidated state and federal legislation that inhibited business or otherwise limited the...

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