<P> The ruling had important implications for protective labor legislation and was decided just three years after Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905), in which a New York law restricting the weekly working hours of bakers in the state was invalidated . </P> <P> Curt Muller, the owner of a laundry business, was convicted of violating Oregon labor laws by making a female employee work more than ten hours in a single day . Muller was fined $10 . Muller appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court and then to the U.S. Supreme Court, both of which upheld the constitutionality of the labor law and affirmed his conviction . </P> <P> In Justice David Josiah Brewer's unanimous opinion, the Court upheld the Oregon regulation . The Court did not overrule Lochner, but instead distinguished it on the basis of "the difference between the sexes". The child - bearing physiology and social role of women provided a strong state interest in reducing their working hours . </P> <P> That woman's physical structure and the performance of maternal functions place her at a disadvantage in the struggle for subsistence is obvious . This is especially true when the burdens of motherhood are upon her . Even when they are not, by abundant testimony of the medical fraternity continuance for a long time on her feet at work, repeating this from day to day, tends to injurious effects upon the body, and as healthy mothers are essential to vigorous offspring, the physical well - being of woman becomes an object of public interest and care in order to preserve the strength and vigor of the race. 208 U.S. at 412 . </P>

Who won the case in mueller v. oregon