UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
STURGES & BURN MFG. CO. V. BEAUCHAMP, 231 U. S. 320 (1913)
231 U. S. 320U.S. Supreme Court
Sturges & Burn Mfg. Co. v. Beauchamp, 231 U.S. 320 (1913)
Sturges & Burn Manufacturing Company v. Beauchamp
No. 54
Submitted November 3, 1913
Decided December 1, 1913
231 U.S. 320
Syllabus
A state is entitled to prohibit the employment of persons of tender years in dangerous occupations, and, in order to make the prohibition effective, it may compel employers, at their peril, to ascertain whether their employees are in fact below the age specified.
Absolute requirements as to ascertaining age of employees of tender years are a proper exercise of the protective power of government, and if the legislation has reasonable relation to the purpose which the state is entitled to effect, it is not an unconstitutional deprivation of liberty or property without due process of law.
A classification in employment of labor of persons below sixteen years of age is reasonable, and does not deny equal protection of the laws. The provisions of the Child Labor Act of Illinois of 1903 involved in this case are not unconstitutional as denying due process of law, as clubjuris
depriving the employer of liberty of contract, or of his property by requiring him at his peril to ascertain the age of the person employed, or as denying him the equal protection of the law.
250 Ill. 303 affirmed.
The facts, which involve the constitutionality under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Illinois Child Labor Act of 1903, are stated in the opinion. clubjuris