Page "Charles Evans Hughes" Paragraph 30

Hughes undoubtedly was aware of these intellectual currents.

There is no evidence that he was directly influenced by T. H. Green ; however, he knew Ely through the AALL and had probably read Pound's essays.

Whatever the precise links, the associate justice wrote opinions that mirrored the arguments of the Oxford philosopher of " positive liberty " and the sociologically inclined Midwestern professors.

" Freedom of contract is a qualified and not an absolute right ...," Hughes declared in upholding an Iowa law that voided contracts limiting the legal rights of railroad workers: The state may " interfere where the parties do not stand upon an equality ...." Using similar reasoning, the associate justice upheld a California law that mandated a forty-eight-hour work-week for women in various industries and allowed a federal statute to override a contract between an interstate railroad and its employees.

Finally, Hughes joined Justice Day's dissent in