Coppage v. Kansas

Coppage v. Kansas
Supreme Court of the United States
Submitted October 30, 1914 Decided January 25, 1915
Full case name	Coppage v. State of Kansas
Citations	236 U.S. 1 (more) 35 S. Ct. 240; 59 L. Ed. 441; 1915 U.S. LEXIS 1798
Holding
It is outside the scope of state police power to prohibit employment contracts that bar workers from joining a union.
Court membership
Chief Justice Edward D. White Associate Justices Joseph McKenna · Oliver W. Holmes Jr. William R. Day · Charles E. Hughes Willis Van Devanter · Joseph R. Lamar Mahlon Pitney · James C. McReynolds
Case opinions
Majority	Pitney, joined by White, McKenna, Van Devanter, Lamar, McReynolds
Dissent	Holmes
Dissent	Day, joined by Hughes

Coppage v. Kansas, 236 U.S. 1 (1915), was a Supreme Court of the United States case based on United States labor law that allowed employers to implement contracts—called yellow-dog contracts—which forbade employees from joining unions.

The case was decided in the era prior to the Great Depression, when the Supreme Court invalidated laws that imposed restrictions on contracts, especially those of employment. The liberty of contract became viewed as a fundamental right that could be abridged only in extreme circumstances; abridgments violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.