The Archive
Reference Library
The founding document as written, a plain overview of the seven Articles, and a glossary of archaic and legal terms.
Economic Regulation & Property
United States v. Carolene Products Co.
Decided: 1938
Upheld federal economic regulation and, in its famous 'Footnote Four,' set the template for heightened judicial scrutiny of laws burdening fundamental rights or discrete minorities.
The opinion itself upheld a federal ban on 'filled milk' under deferential review, but its enduring importance lies in footnote four, where Justice Stone suggested that heightened judicial scrutiny might apply to laws (1) touching a specific prohibition of the Constitution, (2) restricting political processes ordinarily used to repeal undesirable legislation, or (3) directed at 'discrete and insular minorities.' Footnote Four is the blueprint of modern American constitutional law's two-tiered structure of review.