Adair v. United States

Adair v. United States was a 1908 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, 208 U.S. 161 (1908). The Court overturned a federal law that made it illegal for railroads to discriminate against employees because they belonged to labor unions.

In violation of a federal law of 1898, William Adair, acting for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, dismissed O. B. Coppage because he was a member of a labor union. The Supreme Court declared this law unconstitutional because it violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. Labor unions thereby lost some of their protection.