The larger chamber was better suited to the Court, whose sessions had become social "happenings" with members of society in Washington. Observers would crowd into the Chamber and spill onto the balcony. Mirroring the modern-day concerns about cameras in the courtroom, some people worried that the attention from the public had an adverse effect on the Court's proceedings. Some even accused lawyers of "playing to the audience."

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This 1905 Supreme Court decision created a doctrine under which, for the following three decades, the Supreme Court would strike down a series of laws designed to protect workers and consumers from excesses of the aggressive capitalism of the Industrial Age. Joseph Lochner, a bakery owner, was convicted of breaking a New York State wage-and-hour law by requiring his employees to work more than 60 hours a week. The law was then challenged as a violation of due process and the right to personal liberties, such as terms of employment. The Supreme Court ruled that a state should not have the power to police personal contracts of labor.

Salmon P. Chase, who served as Chief Justice 1864-1873, is the only Justice whose likeness ever appeared on U.S. currency. He appeared on the $10,000 bill, which is no longer in print.

The case underscored just how opposed the Court remained to much of the economic reform legislation of the early 20th century.

It was not until the Court began to strike down Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation in the early 1930s that the Justices came under heavy pressure to back down. After President Roosevelt threatened to enlarge the Court and pack it with his supporters, the Court overturned the Lochner decision and abandoned its effort to block the economic reforms that grew out of the Great Depression.