In the 1944 case Young v. Higbee Company et al., the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of Young, a former employee who was seeking compensation for overtime work under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The court held that an employer's good faith belief that its employees were not covered by FLSA did not exempt it from liability for unpaid wages and overtime. The company had argued they should be excused because they believed their operation fell within an exemption to FLSA requirements due to being a retail establishment. However, the court found this argument unconvincing as ignorance or mistaken understanding of law does not excuse non-compliance with statutory obligations. Therefore, even though Higbee Company may have genuinely believed it was acting legally when denying overtime pay, it still violated federal labor laws and owed backpay to its affected workers.

In the dissenting opinion for Young v. Higbee Company, Justice Frank Murphy argued that the majority's decision to uphold a state law prohibiting picketing was an infringement on free speech rights protected by the First Amendment. He contended that peaceful picketing is a form of expression and should be treated as such under constitutional law. Furthermore, he disagreed with the majority's assertion that this case involved labor disputes; instead, he believed it centered around civil liberties and individual freedoms. In his view, banning peaceful picketing would set a dangerous precedent for limiting other forms of protest or expression in public spaces. Thus, Justice Murphy concluded that any attempt to restrict these activities must meet strict scrutiny standards - demonstrating compelling government interest and being narrowly tailored - which this particular statute failed to do so.