Coppage v. Kansas

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Coppage v. Kansas

Full case name:	Coppage v. State of Kansas

Citations:	261 U.S. 1

Holding

Court membership

Case opinions

Majority by: Pitney
Dissent by: Holmes

Coppage v. Kansas, 236 U.S. 1 (1915) was a U.S. Supreme Court case that held that employers could make contracts that forbid employees from joining unions. These types of contracts were called yellow-dog contracts. This case was decided during the Lochner era, when the Supreme Court invalidated laws that imposed regulations on contracts. During this time, liberty of contract was viewed as a fundamental right, and therefore, only in extreme circumstances, could this right be abridged. When the fundamental right of freedom of contract was abridged, it violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Coppage, an employer, forbade his employees from joining labor unions by making it part of their contract, which the employee signed before being hired. This "no joining unions" section violated a Kansas law that prohibited these kinds of anti-union contracts. The majority opinion, by Justice Pitney, held that the law prohibiting these contracts violated Coppage's due process. The Court held that it is not the Court's job to ensure equal bargaining power.

The dissent, lead by Justice Holmes, stated that there is nothing in the Constitution that specifically prohibits a law like Kansas has and therefore the law should be upheld.