LAD #29: Keating-Owen Child Labor Act

The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act was passed in 1916 because, based on the census of 1900, two million children were working across the United States. This Bill was passed based on the power that the government had in regulating interstate commerce. It prevented children of certain ages from working in certain places; like children under 16 could not work in mines and all children under 16 could not work at night or for more than eight hours a day. In Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), this law was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because it overstepped the government's purpose of regulating interstate commerce.