| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | The New Deal includes the "Live Poultry Code," which sets working conditions for poultry slaughterhouses. Schechter Corp os in the wholesale poultry market, and is charged with 18 counts of violating the "Live Poultry Code." |
| Posture: | Convicted in District Court. Appeal. |
| Issue: | Does economic emergency justify the expansion of congressional power? Can congress delegate the authority to make this kind of law? Is this even an interstate kind of a thing? |
| Holding: | No, no, and no. |
| Rule: | 10A specifically guards against congressional usurpation of power
belonging to the states.
Congress is authorized to make all laws necesary and proper: if they can delegate this away, then they can undermine the whole purpose of having a congress. This isn't something that requires central management: this is internal to NY. |
| Reasoning: | Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional power. Power is limited by the constitution. There's nothing in the constitution saying congress can abdicate legislative authority and give it to anyone else. The Recovery Act basically gives all power to the President: that's not how the government is supposed to be structured. And there's no direct relationship between chicken slaughtering and interstate trade anyway. |
| Dicta: | Cardozo (concurring): Delegated legislative power is "unconfined and vagrant." |