Joseph McKenna

“ We are not called upon to controvert the right to insure against contingent losses or liabilities, or to minimize the value of insurance to business activities and enterprises, or discuss the general power or want of power of the state over it. We are only called upon to consider its relation to and possible effect upon the policy of a workmen's compensation law and we can readily see that it may be, as it is said the experience of Ohio demonstrated, inimical to that policy to permit the erection of an interest or a power that may be exerted against it or its subsidiary provisions. ”

“ To compel an employer to insure his employe against loss from injury sustained in the course of the employment without reference to the negligence of the employe and at the same time to prohibit the employer from insuring himself against the burden thus imposed, it seems to me, if originally considered, would be a typical illustration of the taking of property without due process and a violation of the equal protection of the law. ”

“ In support of the contention that the Constitution of the United States makes the legislation and the action under it illegal, it is said that insurance against loss is the right of everybody, and specifically it is the right of employers to indemnify themselves against their liability to employes, and that the right is so fixed and inherent as to be an attribute of liberty removed from the interference of the state.
The provisions of the legislation are necessary elements in the consideration of the contention: (1) The Constitution of Ohio authorizes Workmen's Compensation Laws. ”