Brief Fact Summary. The Defendant-Respondent, Darby (Defendant), was indicted under the Fair Labor Standards Act (the Act) for violating minimum wage and maximum hours limitations. The Respondent now argues the standards promulgated under the Act are an unconstitutional exercise of the commerce power.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. Congress may regulate intrastate activities so long as there is a connection between such activities and interstate commerce. Also, the Tenth Amendment “states but a truism.”
It is no objection to the assertion of the power to regulate interstate commerce that its exercise is attended by the same incidents which attend the exercise of the police power of the states.
View Full Point of LawIssue. May Congress prohibit the employment of workers producing goods for interstate commerce at other than statutory set wages and hours?
Held. Yes. Appeals court ruling reversed and remanded.
Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U.S. 251 (1918) is specifically overruled as a “departure from the principles which have prevailed in the interpretation of the commerce clause