Coppage v. Kansas

Coppage v. Kansas by Mahlon Pitney Syllabus

related portals: Supreme Court of the United States. Coppage v. Kansas, 236 U.S. 1 (1915), was a U.S. Supreme Court case that held that employers could make contracts that forbid employees from joining unions. These types of contracts were called yellow-dog contracts. This case was decided in the era prior to the American Great Depression when the Supreme Court invalidated laws that imposed restrictions on contracts, especially those of employment. During this time, liberty of contract was viewed as a fundamental right, and therefore, only in extreme circumstances, could this right be abridged. When the fundamental right of freedom of contract was abridged, it violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. — Excerpted from Coppage v. Kansas on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

United States Supreme Court

236 U.S. 1

COPPAGE  v.  KANSAS

 Argued: October 30, 1914. --- Decided: January 25, 1915

[Syllabus from pages 1-4 intentionally omitted]

Messrs. R. R. Vermilion and W. F. Evans for plaintiff in error.

Mr. John S. Dawson, Attorney General of Kansas, and Mr. J. I. Sheppard for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice Pitney delivered the opinion of the court:

Notes

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).