Adair v. United States Adair v. United States was a 1908
decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, 208 U.S. 161 (1908). The
Court overturned a federal law that made it illegal for
railroads to discriminate against employees because they
belonged to labor unions. In violation of a federal law of 1898,
William Adair, acting for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad,
dismissed O. B. Coppage because he was a member of a labor
union. The Supreme Court declared this law unconstitutional
because it violated the due process clause of the Fifth
Amendment. Labor unions thereby lost some of their protection.