A LITTLE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY

The Pre-Lochner Era by Jacob G. Hornberger
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2012-11-01.asp

We begin with 1776. The Declaration of Independence enunciated the revolutionary principle that people’s rights don’t come from government. Instead, they come from nature and nature’s God. As such, they precede government. That principle shocked the world, given that people had long believed that their lives belonged to the king and that he had the sovereign prerogative to do whatever he wanted to people lives, freedom, and property.

There was another big revolution in 1776: the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.