Child Labor Amendment

The **Child Labor Amendment** is a d and still- amendment to the United States Constitution that would specifically  Congress to  "labor of persons under eighteen years of age". The amendment was proposed in 1924 following Supreme Court rulings in 1918 and 1922 that federal laws regulating and taxing goods produced by employees under the ages of 14 and 16 were unconstitutional.

The majority of the state governments ratified the amendment by the mid-1930s. However, it has not been ratified by the required three-fourths of the states according to Article V of the Constitution. None of the states have ratified it since 1937. There was not much interest in the amendment after the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which implemented federal  of child labor with the Supreme Court's approval in 1941.

Because Congress did not set a time limit for its ratification, the amendment is still  pending before the states. Currently, ratification by an additional ten states would be necessary for this amendment to become law.

## Text
## Background
With the Keating–Owen Act of 1916, Congress had attempted to control interstate commerce involving goods produced by employees under the ages of 14 or 16, depending on the type of work. The Supreme Court found this law unconstitutional in *Hammer v. Dagenhart* (1918). Later that year, Congress attempted to  a tax on businesses with employees under the ages of 14 or 16 (again depending on the type of work), which was struck down by the Supreme Court in *Bailey v. Drexel Furniture*. It became apparent that a constitutional amendment would be necessary for such legislation to overcome the Court's objections.

## Legislative history
The amendment was offered by Ohio Republican Congressman Israel Moore Foster on April 26, 1924, during the 68th Congress, in the form of House Joint Resolution No. 184. The text of the proposed amendment reads:

## Ratification history
Having been approved by Congress, the proposed amendment was sent to the state legislatures for ratification. It was ratified by the following states:
# Arkansas — June 28, 1924
# California — January 8, 1925
# Arizona — January 29, 1925
# Wisconsin — February 25, 1925
# Montana — February 11, 1927
# Colorado — April 28, 1931
# Oregon — January 31, 1933
# Washington — February 3, 1933
# North Dakota — March 4, 1933 (After State Senate rejection – January 28, 1925)
# Ohio — March 22, 1933
# Michigan — May 10, 1933
# New Hampshire — May 17, 1933 (After rejection – March 18, 1925)
# New Jersey — June 12, 1933
# Illinois — June 30, 1933
# Oklahoma — July 5, 1933
# Iowa — December 5, 1933 (After State House rejection – March 11, 1925)
# West Virginia — December 12, 1933
# Minnesota — December 14, 1933 (After rejection – April 14, 1925)
# Maine — December 16, 1933 (After rejection – April 10, 1925)
# Pennsylvania — December 21, 1933 (After rejection – April 16, 1925)
# Wyoming — January 31, 1935
# Utah — February 5, 1935 (After rejection – February 4, 1925)
# Idaho — February 7, 1935 (After State House rejection – February 7, 1925)
# Indiana — February 8, 1935 (After State Senate rejection – February 5, 1925 and State House rejection - March 5, 1925)
# Kentucky — January 13, 1937 (After rejection – March 24, 1926)
# Nevada — January 29, 1937
# New Mexico — February 12, 1937 (After rejection – 1935)
# Kansas — February 25, 1937 (After rejection – January 30, 1925) no other states have ratified the Child Labor Amendment.

The following fifteen state legislatures ed the Child Labor Amendment and did not ratify it: Connecticut (1925), Delaware (1925), Florida (1925),  Georgia (1924), Louisiana (1924), Maryland (1927), Massachusetts (1925), Missouri (1925), North Carolina (1924), South Carolina (1925), South Dakota (1925, 1933 and 1937), Tennessee (1925), Texas (1925), Vermont (1925), and Virginia (1926). and effectively part of the Constitution; the movement for it had concluded.

## Notes 
## References
## Other websites 
*The Child Labor Amendment Debate of the 1920s , Bill Kaufmann, Ludwig Von Mises Institute, November 1992
*Labor: Children , a 1924 *Time* magazine article on the subject
*Labor: A 20th Amendment? , a 1925 *Time* magazine article discussing 1920s attempts to ratify the Amendment