Case Citator › Coppage v. Kansas

Coppage v. Kansas

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Overruled
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
236 U.S. 1
Decided
Confirmed treatments
2
Flagged citations read
23 of 23
Treatment dates
1949–1952
Overruled
A reviewed court has overruled this case. Coppage v. Kansas was overruled by Lincoln Federal Labor Union v. Northwestern Iron & Metal Co. The Constitution Annotated lists Lincoln Federal as overruling Coppage, and the Supreme Court there said it had discarded the due process doctrine that protected an employer's use of anti-union employment terms. The Court later criticized that doctrine in Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. v. Missouri.
More on how this was screened

Both confirmed treatments are listed below. All 23 flagged citations have been read.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

23 citations to Coppage v. Kansas sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Coppage v. Kansas?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Overruled

  • The Supreme Court rejected Coppage's rule that due process barred states from regulating anti-union employment terms.

    Lincoln Federal Labor Union v. Northwestern Iron & Metal Co. · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    This Court beginning at least as early as 1934, when the Nebbia case was decided, has steadily rejected the due process philosophy enunciated in the Adair-Coppage line of cases. In doing so it has consciously returned closer and closer to the earlier constitutional principle that states have power to legislate against what are found to be injurious practices in their internal commercial and business affairs, so long as their laws do not run afoul of some specific federal constitutional prohibition, or of some valid federal law.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Criticized

  • The Supreme Court rejected Coppage's liberty of contract reasoning when it upheld Missouri's paid voting leave law.

    Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. v. Missouri · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    But if our recent cases mean anything, they leave debatable issues as respects business, economic, and social affairs to legislative decision. We could strike down this law only if we returned to the philosophy of the Lochner, Coppage, and Adkins cases.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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