An introduction to Constitutional Law 100 Supreme Court cases everyone should know

The National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA)

The Hughes Court (1932-1937). Seated, from left to right: Justices Louis D. Brandeis and Willis Van Devanter, Chief Justice Evans Hughes, and Justices James C. McReynolds and George Sutherland. Standing, from left to right: Justices Owen J. Roberts, Pierce Butler, Harlan Fiske Stone, and Benjamin N. Cardozo.

Josh with chickens

“Neither the slaughtering nor the sales by defendants [of chickens] were transactions in interstate commerce.”

“The authority of the federal government may not be pushed to such an extreme as to destroy the distinction, which the commerce clause itself establishes, between commerce ‘among the several States’ and the internal concerns of a State.”

Implied powers during the Progressive Era

In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President. Roosevelt’s legislative agenda pushed the boundaries of how much local conduct Congress could regulate. One of the most significant of these laws was the National Industrial Recovery Act (NRA). Under the NRA, private businesses and unions could adopt “Codes of Fair Competition” that would become legally enforceable once approved by the President.

President Roosevelt adopted the Live Poultry Code for New York City. The code regulated labor conditions in slaughterhouses and specified how chickens could be slaughtered. The Schechter Brothers operated a Kosher slaughterhouse in Brooklyn. They did not ship their chickens out of state. The federal government prosecuted them for violating the code.

The Court unanimously concluded that Congress lacked the power to enact the NRA.