# Hammer v. Dagenhart The Supreme Court decision of **June 3, 1918** that struck down the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916, which barred the interstate shipment of goods made by children. Writing for a 5–4 majority, Justice William R. Day held that manufacturing is not itself interstate commerce and that the law invaded powers reserved to the states under the [[Tenth Amendment]]. [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr]] dissented for four justices, arguing that shipping goods across state lines is commerce whatever the conditions of their making. The case is the emblem of [[Dual Federalism]] and of the narrow pre-1937 reading of the [[Commerce Clause]]. Together with a 1922 ruling striking down a federal tax on child-labor goods, it prompted the [[Child Labor Amendment]]. The Court overruled it unanimously in [[United States v. Darby]] (1941), adopting Holmes's dissent. ## Connections - [[Dual Federalism]] · [[Commerce Clause]] · [[Tenth Amendment]] · [[Child Labor Amendment]] · [[Child Labor]] - [[United States v. Darby]] · [[Lochner Era]] · [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr]]