The U.S. Supreme Court case Boutell et al., Doing Business as F.J. Boutell Service Co., v. Walling, Wage and Hour Administrator, 1945 dealt with the issue of whether or not employees of a company engaged in intrastate commerce were entitled to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The plaintiffs were mechanics who repaired trucks used by their employer for interstate transportation but did not themselves engage in such transportation directly. The defendant was the Wage and Hour Administrator who argued that these workers fell within an exemption from FLSA's overtime provisions because they were involved in "interstate commerce." However, the court ruled against this interpretation stating that while these workers' activities affected interstate commerce indirectly, they did not participate directly enough to be exempted from receiving overtime pay under FLSA.

The dissenting opinion in the Boutell v. Walling case argued that the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 did not apply to employees engaged in local activities, even if they were part of a larger interstate business operation. The dissenters believed that Congress had overstepped its constitutional boundaries by attempting to regulate purely intrastate commerce under the guise of controlling interstate commerce. They contended that such an interpretation would give Congress virtually unlimited power over all forms of economic activity, which was never intended by the framers of the Constitution. Furthermore, they asserted that this broad interpretation could potentially undermine state sovereignty and infringe upon individual liberties protected under Tenth Amendment rights.