How did the Supreme Court's views of laws regulating the workplace change between the Lochner decision of 1905 and the Muller case of 1908?
Progressives in several states passed laws regulating workplace conditions. In New York, the state legislature passed a law limiting the number of hours that bakers could work. In the case of Lochner v. New York (1905), however, the Supreme Court declared this law unconstitutional. According to the Court, employers and employees ought to be free to agree on wages, hours and other matters without interference from the government. Three years later, in Muller v. Oregon (1908), the Court upheld an Oregon law that limited the number of hours that women could work. The Muller case was important for several reasons. First, the Court now appeared more willing to permit laws regulating the workplace. Second, the case was argued by a brilliant young lawyer, Louis Brandeis, who used a great deal of social scientific research compiled on working conditions to make his case.