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Economic Due Process Revisited, James W. Ely, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

In many constitutional histories the presentation of economic issues between 1880 and 1937 resembles a Victorian melodrama. A dastardly Supreme Court is pictured as frustrating noble reformers who sought to impose beneficent regulations on giant business enterprises.' The centerpiece in this tale of wickedness is Lochner v. New York.' Few Supreme Court decisions have been vilified more than Lochner. For years liberal commentators ritualistically denounced the Court's decision. The laissez-faire assumptions behind Lochner naturally were an anathema to scholars and judges favoring government intervention in the economy and redistribution of wealth. Worse yet, this example of judicial activism reflected an …