Michael: The foundations for state ownership of human beings predates the New Deal years. As early as 1905, in the case of Lochner v. New York (a case striking down a state law regulating the number of hours people could work in bakeries), Justice Harlan wrote a dissenting opinion, in which he would have upheld such legislation. Excessive hours, he argued, “. . . may endanger the health, and shorten the lives of the workmen, thereby diminishing their physical and mental capacity to serve the state. . . .”
Thus do efforts by the state to preserve and promote our health serve the same purpose as a rancher’s interests in caring for his cattle prior to their shipment to the slaughterhouse!
11:59 am on March 13, 2010
