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United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100 (1941)
Working conditions for Americans changed rapidly during the first half of the 20th century. Many people, including children, were forced to work shifts of 10 hours or more for very little pay, often in unsafe conditions. Political and social changes persuaded Congress to pass laws that would improve the lives of the American workforce. One such law, passed in 1938, was the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA. Among other things, the FLSA required employers to pay workers a minimum wage, as well as additional pay for overtime.
The FLSA’s drafters wanted to help workers nationwide, but had to work within the Congressional powers enumerated by the United States Constitution. The Constitution’s Commerce Clause grants Congress the power to pass laws regulating, quote, “commerce among the several states,” unquote. The FLSA therefore only applied to workers who were either actually engaged in interstate commerce, or engaged in the production of goods to be sold in interstate commerce. The FLSA’s constitutionality was put to the test shortly after its passage, in United States versus Darby.
Darby manufactured lumber in Georgia. Darby’s company brought whole trees into his factory, cut the trees into lumber, and shipped the lumber out to customers in Georgia and other states.
Darby paid his workers less than the minimum wage required by the FLSA, and also failed to pay them overtime compensation. The United States government sued Darby to enforce the law.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia dismissed the indictment, holding that the FLSA was unconstitutional. According to the district court, manufacturing was not interstate commerce, and Congress didn’t have the power to regulate the employment of manufacturing workers. In Darby’s case, all the lumber was cut at a factory in Georgia. Even if some of the lumber was eventually sold in other states, the employees themselves worked only in Georgia. The indictment against Darby, therefore, had to be dropped.
The federal government appealed directly to the United States Supreme Court.
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