| Opinion | Majority | Minority |
Home Building & Loan Assn. v. Blaisdell
290 U.S. 398
Argued Nov. 8, 9, 1933
Decided Jan. 8, 1934 |
"While emergency does not create power, emergency may furnish the occasion for the exercise of power." | "If the provisions of the Constitution be not upheld when they pinch, as well as when they comfort, they may as well be abandoned." |
| Hughes, 290 U.S. 398, 426 |
Sutherland, 290 U.S. 398, 483 |
Nebbia v. New York
291 U.S. 502
Argued Dec. 4, 5, 1933
Decided Mar. 5, 1934 |
"neither property rights nor contract rights are absolute, for government cannot exist if the citizen may at will use his property to the detriment of his fellows, or exercise his freedom of contract to work them harm. Equally fundamental with the private right is that of the public to regulate it in the common interest."
| Grave concern for embarrassed farmers is everywhere, but this should neither obscure the rights of others nor obstruct judicial appraisement of measures proposed for relief. The ultimate welfare of the producer, like that of every other class, requires dominance of the Constitution. |
| Roberts, 291 U.S. 502, 523 | McReynolds,291 U.S. 502, 559 |
Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan
293 U.S. 388
Argued Dec. 10, 11, 1934
Decided Jan. 7, 1935 | "If section 9(c) were held valid, it would be idle to pretend that anything would be left of limitations upon the power of the Congress to delegate its lawmaking function." |
"There is no fear that the nation will drift from its ancient moorings as the result of the narrow delegation of power permitted by this section. What can be done under cover of that permission is closely and clearly circumscribed both as to subject-matter and occasion." |
| Hughes, 293 U.S. 388, 430 | Cardozo, 293 U.S. 388, 443 |
Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States
295 U.S. 495
Argued May 2, 3, 1935
Decided May 27, 1935 |
"Extraordinary conditions may call for extraordinary remedies. But the argument necessarily stops short of an attempt to justify action which lies outside the sphere of constitutional authority. Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional power." |
[Concurring Opinion] "The delegated power of legislation which has found expression in this code is not canalized within banks that keep it from overflowing. It is unconfined and vagrant, if I may borrow my own words in an earlier opinion." |
| Hughes, 295 U.S. 495, 528 | Cardozo, 295 U.S. 495, 551 |
United States v. Butler
297 U.S. 1
Argued Dec. 9, 10, 1935
Decided Jan. 6, 1936 |
"A tax, in the general understanding of the term, and as used in the Constitution, signifies an exaction for the support of the Government. The word has never been thought to connote the expropriation of money from one group for the benefit of another." |
"Courts are not the only agency of government that must be assumed to have capacity to govern. Congress and the courts both unhappily may falter or be mistaken in the performance of their constitutional duty." |
| Roberts, 297 U.S. 1, 61 | Cardozo, 297 U.S. 1, 87 |
Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority
297 U.S. 288
Argued Dec. 19, 20, 1935
Decided Feb. 17, 1936 |
"The Government is not using the water power at the Wilson Dam to establish any industry or business. It is not using the energy generated at the dam to manufacture commodities of any sort for the public." |
"If, under the thin mask of disposing of property, the United States can enter the business of generating, transmitting and selling power as, when, and wherever some board may specify...an easy way has been found for breaking down the limitations heretofore supposed to guarantee protection against aggression." |
| Hughes, 297 U.S. 288, 340 | McReynolds, 297 U.S. 288, 372 |
Carter v. Carter Coal Co.
298 U.S. 238
Argued Mar. 11, 12, 1936
Decided May 18, 1936 |
"...the evils are all local evils over which the federal government has no legislative control. The relation of employer and employee is a local relation. At common law, it is one of the domestic relations." |
"Commerce had been choked and burdened; its normal flow had been diverted from one state to another; there had been bankruptcy and waste and ruin alike for capital and for labor. The liberty protected by the Fifth Amendment does not include the right to persist in this anarchic riot." |
| Sutherland, 298 U.S. 238, 308 |
Cardozo, 298 U.S. 238, 331 |
Morehead v. New York ex rel. Tipaldo
298 U.S. 587
Argued Apr. 28, 29, 1936
Decided Jun. 1, 1936 |
"The right to make contracts about one's affairs is a part of the liberty protected by the due process clause.... In making contracts of employment, generally speaking, the parties have equal right to obtain from each other the best terms they can by private bargaining." |
"...'freedom of contract' as applied to their relations with employers is illusory; that, by reason of the necessity of seeking support for themselves and their dependents, they are forced to accept whatever wages are offered..." |
| Butler, 298 U.S. 587, 610 |
Hughes, 298 U.S. 587, 626 |
West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish
300 U.S. 379
Argued Dec. 16, 17, 1936
Decided Mar. 29, 1937 |
"The Constitution does not speak of freedom of contract. It speaks of liberty and prohibits the deprivation of liberty without due process of law. In prohibiting that deprivation, the Constitution does not recognize an absolute and uncontrollable liberty." |
"It is urged that the question involved should now receive fresh consideration, among other reasons, because of 'the economic conditions which have supervened'; but the meaning of the Constitution does not change with the ebb and flow of economic events." |
| Hughes, 300 U.S. 379, 391 |
Sutherland, 300 U.S. 379, 402 |
National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
301 U.S. 1
Argued Feb. 10, 11, 1937
Decided Apr. 12, 1937 |
"Discrimination and coercion to prevent the free exercise of the right of employees to self-organization and representation is a proper subject for condemnation by competent legislative authority." |
|
| Hughes, 301 U.S. 1, 33 |
|
Steward Machine Co. v. Collector of Internal Revenue
301 U.S. 548
Argued Apr. 8, 9, 1937
Decided May 24, 1937 |
"It is too late today for the argument to be heard with tolerance that... the use of the moneys of the nation to relieve the unemployed and their dependents is a use for any purpose narrower than the promotion of the general welfare." |
"... I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States." |
| Cardozo, 301 U.S. 548, 586, 587 |
McReynolds, 301 U.S. 548, 603 |