Alabama law, carried the case to the Supreme Court of the United States.
The constitutionality of the law was called into question on the
following grounds: (1) That it violated the prohibition against
involuntary service; (2) it denied the plaintiff in error the right of
due process of law; (3) that by laying a burden on the employee and no
equivalent burden on the employer, the law denied to the plaintiff the
constitutional right of equal protection of the laws.
The decision of the court was not unanimous. Justices Holmes and Lurton
upheld the Alabama law, but the majority, in an opinion written by
Justice Hughes, declared the law in conflict with the Thirteenth