<P> The Supreme Court, under Taft, compiled a conservative record in Commerce Clause jurisprudence . This had the practical effect of making it difficult for the federal government to regulate industry, and the Taft Court also scuttled many state laws . The few liberals on the court--Brandeis, Holmes, and (from 1925) Harlan Fiske Stone--sometimes protested, believing orderly progress essential, but often joined in the majority opinion . </P> <P> The White Court had, in 1918, struck down an attempt by Congress to regulate child labor in Hammer v. Dagenhart . Congress thereafter attempted to end child labor by imposing a tax on certain corporations making use of it . That law was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1922 in Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co., with Taft writing the court's opinion for an 8--1 majority . He held that the tax was not intended to raise revenue, but rather was an attempt to regulate matters reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment, and that allowing such taxation would eliminate the power of the states . One case in which Taft and his court upheld federal regulation was Stafford v. Wallace . Taft ruled for a 7--1 majority that the processing of animals in stockyards was so closely tied to interstate commerce as to bring it within the ambit of Congress's power to regulate . </P> <P> A case in which the Taft Court struck down regulation that generated a dissent from the chief justice was Adkins v. Children's Hospital . Congress had decreed a minimum wage for women in the District of Columbia . A 5--3 majority of the Supreme Court struck it down . Justice Sutherland wrote for the majority that the recently ratified Nineteenth Amendment, guaranteeing women the vote, meant that the sexes were equal when it came to bargaining power over working conditions; Taft, in dissent, deemed this unrealistic . Taft's dissent in Adkins was rare both because he authored few dissents, and because it was one of the few times he took an expansive view of the police power of the government . </P> <P> In 1922, Taft ruled for a unanimous court in Balzac v. Porto Rico . One of the Insular Cases, Balzac involved a Puerto Rico newspaper publisher who was prosecuted for libel but denied a jury trial, a Sixth Amendment protection under the constitution . Taft held that as Puerto Rico was not a territory designated for statehood, only such constitutional protections as Congress decreed would apply to its residents . </P>

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