Adkins v. Children's Hospital

Congress set a minimum wage for women and children working in the District of Columbia. Children's Hospital (plaintiff) employed adult women at wages both sides had agreed to, but below the federal minimum. The hospital sued Adkins (defendant), the official enforcing the wage law, to enjoin it as a violation of the hospital's and its employees' Fifth Amendment due process right to contract freely. The district court denied the injunction, the court of appeals reversed, and Adkins appealed to the Supreme Court.