United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Adams v. Tanner, 244 U.S. 590 (1917)

Adams v. Tanner

No. 273

Argued May 7, 1917

Decided June 11, 1917

244 U.S. 590

Syllabus

The business of securing honest work for the unemployed in return for an agreed consideration is a useful and legitimate business which, though subject to regulation under the state police power, cannot be forbidden by an act of a state without violating the guaranty of liberty secured by the Fourteenth Amendment.

A law forbidding employment agents from receiving fees from the workers for whom they find places in effect destroys their occupation as agents for workers, and cannot be sustained upon the ground that the fees may be charged against employers.

Washington Initiative Measure Number 8 (popularly known as "The Employment Agency Law,") as construed by the supreme court of the state, is contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment.

Decree of the district court reversed. *

The case is stated in the opinion.

Page 244 U. S. 591