The Brandeis Brief
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In 1907, Florence Kelley and Josephine Goldmark hired Louis D. Brandeis to represent the state of Oregon in Muller v. Oregon (208 US 412), a case before the US Supreme Court that involved the constitutionality of limiting hours for female laundry workers.
To support his argument that overwork was inimical to the workers' health, Brandeis (with the help of Goldmark, his sister-in-law) compiled a number of statistics from medical and sociological journals and listed citations to the articles in his brief. The brief was significant in that it was the first one submitted to the Supreme Court that relied primarily on extra-legal data to prove its argument.
Not only did the brief help Brandeis win the case but it also became a legal landmark in its own right. Briefs that cited non-legal data quickly became commonplace and became known as "Brandeis briefs." However, the brief for Muller v. Oregon is the original Brandeis Brief, and therefore we present it here in its entirety.
Due to its length (113 pages) we have split it into 7 sections. The files are available in two formats. The pdfs preserve the format and look of the original brief. The character recognition of the pdf files are a little spotty though and therefore visually impaired users are encouraged to use the Microsoft Word versions of the files.
Table of Contents
Adobe Acrobat Version | Microsoft Word Version
Part One
Adobe Acrobat Version | Microsoft Word Version
Part Two
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Part Three
Adobe Acrobat Version | Microsoft Word Version
Part Four
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Part Five
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