http://www.oyez.org/cases/1901-1939/1921/ U.S. Supreme Court Decisions, presented by The Oyez Project (www.oyez.org) en-us <p>Did Congress violate the Constitution in adopting the Child Labor Tax Law in attempting to regulate the employment of children, a power reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment?</p><p>Yes. The Court found that the Child Labor Tax Law was in violation of the Constitution as it intruded on the jurisdiction of states to adopt and enforce child labor codes. Chief Justice Taft argued that the tax law in question did much more than simply impose an "incidental restraint" but exerted a "prohibitory and regulatory effect" in a realm over which Congress had no jurisdiction. Taft feared that upholding this law would destroy state sovereignty and devastate "all constitutional limitation of the powers of Congress" by allowing it to disguise future regulatory legislation in the cloak of taxes.</p> http://www.oyez.org/cases/1901-1939/1921/1921_657/ <p>Did Congress have authority under the Commerce Clause to pass and enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921?</p><p>In a 7-to-1 decision, the Court held that the activities controlled by the Act did indeed burden the freedom of commerce and fell within the regulatory jurisdiction of Congress. The Court argued that Congress did not have to wait until after deleterious economic monopolies had developed to regulate particular industries. Drawing on its decision in Swift v. United States, the Court found that business done in the stockyards was an essential part of interstate commerce and thus subject to national legislation.</p> http://www.oyez.org/cases/1901-1939/1921/1921_687/