Child Labor Tax Case [Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co.]

259 U.S. 20 (1922)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

A few months after the Court had held regulation of child labor through the commerce power unconstitutional in Hammer v. Dagenhart, Congress enacted the Child Labor Tax Law of 1919. That law imposed a federal excise tax of 10% of annual net profits on every employer of child labor in the covered businesses. The coverage provisions were similar to those in the law invalidated in Hammer v. Dagenhart. In the context of mines and quarries, the tax was to be imposed based on hiring of children aged 16 years or less; in the context of mills and factories, the tax was to be imposed based on hiring of children aged 14 years or less, or on children aged 15 or less working more than 8 hours a day or 6 days a week. Payment was to be exacted only if the employer knowingly employed children as indicated. After paying a tax of over $6000, the Company successfully brought a refund suit in the District Court.