Police power let states regulate contracts for health, safety, or morality

Evidence

State regulation of the labor contract was possible within the vague boundaries of “police power,” the right to pass laws in the interests of health, safety, or morality. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3212

Categorization

• DEFINE: Working definition of police power — the central constitutional category this whole era of labor legislation turns on, needed as shared vocabulary.
• XREF: connects to: Law and order originally meant state rule limited to law itself — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 939; Clients negotiate protection terms and can choose police instead; Private moral regulation becomes state function when crises demand it (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Private moral regulation becomes state function when crises demand it #expands (0.80)
• Courts should consult legislative policy signals even outside the jurisdiction to void contracts #qualifies (0.80) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 1400
• Law and order originally meant state rule limited to law itself #expands (0.75) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 939
• Street-level law enforcement applies the law selectively according to officers’ personal standards #complicates (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2067
• Clients negotiate protection terms and can choose police instead #complicates (0.70)