In Justice Alito’s opinion for the Court in Dobbs, he launched into a surprising attack on an old case, Lochner v. New York. That 1905 case involved a New York statute that put an upper limit on the number of hours that bakers were allowed to work. The Court invalidated the statute on the grounds that the 14th Amendment protects the individual’s liberty of contract.

Generations of law students have heard that decision berated as wrong, an abuse of judicial power. Apparently, Justice Alito imbibed that view because he made a swipe at Lochner in Dobbs.

In this Reason piece, Damon Root argues that the 14th Amendment indeed does protect liberty of contract. I think he’s right. The 14th Amendment ought to protect people against special-interest legislation (as was the case in Lochner) that deprives them of basic freedoms.