The Law
Sam Reich and Dean
Packer
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
● 1883- Becomes a Supreme Judicial Court
Judge for the state of Massachusetts
○
Became Chief Justice
● 1902- Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to
the Supreme Court
○
Roosevelt thought that Holmes supported him
■ Holmes later struck down many of Roosevelt's
ideas
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr’s Ideas
● When in the Supreme Court he opposed
many of his fellow judges
● Believed that all judges shouldn’t make
decisions to benefit their own religion
○
Separation of Church and State
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr’s Book
● 1881- Published his book Common Law
○
○
Included 12 of his lectures
Talked about new ideas of liability, trespassing,
and possession
● “The life of the law has not been logic; it has been
experience.”
○ Means that judges should never lose touch with
ordinary people
Louis Brandeis
● 1890- Developed his own profitable practice
and was able to serve without pay in many
public causes
● 1913- Was offered a position in President
Woodrow Wilson’s cabinet but he declined
● In 37 years of law practice he became
known as “the peoples lawyer” for
representing family business and small
stockholders to fight greedy monopolies
Brandeis’ Book
1914- Published Other
People’s Money and How
the Bankers Use it
● It attacked monopolies
and the ways bankers
controlled American
Industry
Views on Business and Government
● The need for citizens to achieve their potential
in small communities and defend the idea of
private businesses and commonwealth
● Leader of a traditional that doesn't exist on
the Supreme Court which was a progressive
idea of states’ rights and federalism
● First to characterize the states as
“laboratories of democracy” which is a major
idea of conservative defenders of federalism
today
Court Cases
● Lochner v. New York (1905)- Holmes won by 5-4 along with
other judges that didn’t approve the hours a baker could
work per week and per day
● Muller v. Oregon (1908)- In which Louis Brandeis served as
an additional counsel to Oregon (also a future Supreme
Court Justice). He wrote a legal document that supported
Oregon law collecting verifiable data from a large number of
sources.
Court Cases Continued
● Hammer v. Dagenhart- The court said that the previously
approved Keating-Owen Act, which made stricter child labor
laws and made it harder to buy goods made by children, was
unconstitutional. Gave states the power to decide child labor
laws.
● Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. protected the rights of the
first amendment in Schenck vs. United States in 1919
for when an antiwar activist distributed pamphlets and
the man was charged with violating the Espionage Act.
Modern Lawyer
● John Roberts
● 17th Supreme Court Chief Justice
Why?
● Lawyers protect the people of America
● Without laws and lawyers groups of people
wouldn’t have definite rights like women
and African Americans
Work Cited
●
"Hammer V. Dagenhart." Bill Of Rights Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2013.
<http://billofrightsinstitute.org/resources/educator-resources/lessons-plans/landmark-cases-and-the-constitution/hammer-vdagenhart-1918/>.
●
"Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr." American History. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies/oliver-wendell-holmes/>.
●
"The Life Of Law: What Holmes Meant." Social Science Research network. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2013.
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1753389>.
●
"Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr." Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. <http://www.biography.com/people/oliver-wendellholmes-jr-9342405?page=2>.
●
"Louis Brandeis Biography." Biography.com. http://www.biography.com/people/louis-brandeis-39048?page=2, n.d. Web. 9
Oct. 2013. <http://www.biography.com/people/louis-brandeis-39048?page=1>.
●
Urofsky, Melvin I. "Why Brandeis Matters." Newrepublic.com. NEW REPUBLIC, n.d Web. 9 Oct. 2013. <http://www.newrepublic.com/article/75902/
why-brandeis-matters>.