“Tell the President that we’re not going to let this government centralize everything. It’s come to an end. As for your young men…tell them to go home, back to the states. That is where they must do their work.”
–Justice Louis Brandeis
It was three strikes against the New Deal today in the Supreme Court. The Court handed down three different unanimous decisions against FDR’s program.
The key ruling will end the National Recovery Administration. The NRA is the agency that’s been writing “codes” for hours, pay and practices in 700 different industries—including strip-tease shows (Code 348) and dog food (Code 450)!
The Justices say the NRA takes the federal government beyond interstate commerce and into territory that the Constitution reserves for the states.
And Congress can’t delegate so much of its law-making power to an executive agency, says the Court. This is “delegation running riot,” says Justice Cardozo.
