The Lochner era marked the beginning of the US Supreme Court’s (SCOTUS) expansion of its powers into unenumerated rights, and by extension, Americans’ economic and social lives, which persists today.
The development of substantive due process brought many unenumerated rights under the Constitution, meaning SCOTUS had the power to expand and protect them. But as seen with abortion, substantive due process also made it possible for SCOTUS to overturn unenumerated rights; after all, an institution that can grant rights may also take them away. The end of Roe v. Wade was a powerful lesson that personal freedoms depend upon courts and judges being willing to defend and protect them.
