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Economic Regulation & Property
West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish
Decided: 1937
In brief
Upheld a state minimum-wage law, effectively ending the Lochner era of aggressive review of economic legislation.
The Court's ruling in depth
In what contemporaries dubbed 'the switch in time that saved nine' — amid FDR's court-packing threat — Justice Roberts joined the liberals to uphold Washington State's minimum-wage law for women. West Coast Hotel repudiated Lochner and inaugurated the modern era of deferential rational-basis review for economic regulation.