[From “Child Labor Laws or Parental Rights? States Push Back Against Federalized Youth-work Mandates”]

For more than a century, “child labor” has been used as a political slogan to justify expanding government control over families, workplaces, and the free market. Of course, no civilized society tolerates abuse or dangerous exploitation, but modern “child labor laws” frequently go far beyond punishing abuse. They treat capable teenagers as wards of the state, substitute bureaucracy for parental judgment, and increasingly invite federal intervention where the U.S. Constitution authorized none

That is why a growing number of state lawmakers are revisiting youth-employment restrictions. The question is not whether children should be protected[…]It is whether government should presume to seize decision-making authority that belongs to parents — and whether Congress should be granted still more power over local labor rules, family life, and state sovereignty[…]
This is a God-given parental-rights issue. The Ninth Amendment recognizes that the people retain rights beyond those explicitly listed in the Constitution, as they are given by God. Among those retained rights is the fundamental right and duty of parents to direct the upbringing of their children — including whether, when, and under what conditions a mature minor may take on willful and gainful employment[…]
In Deuteronomy 6:6-7, God commands parents to teach their children diligently in all aspects of life, a charge that presumes both authority and responsibility within the household[…]
Connecticut’s HJ217 (2024) is the clearest warning sign. Rather than adjusting state-level rules, it ratifies the so-called Child Labor Amendment[…]
The choice before state legislatures is increasingly stark: Will they affirm the Ninth Amendment’s recognition that rights are retained by the people[…]or will they yield to a federalized model that treats families as subjects and teenagers as government property?