United States v. Butler

E11198

U.S. Supreme Court case constitutional law case landmark case

United States v. Butler was a 1936 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down key provisions of the New Deal’s Agricultural Adjustment Act as an unconstitutional use of federal taxing and spending power.

Aliases (3)

Statements (48)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	U.S. Supreme Court case → constitutional law case → landmark case →
areaOfLaw	administrative law → constitutional law → tax law →
chiefJusticeAtTime	Charles Evans Hughes →
citation	297 U.S. 1 →
constitutionalProvisionInterpreted	Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution → Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution →
court	Supreme Court of the United States →
decisionDate	1936-01-06 →
defendant	Butler →
dissentingOpinionBy	Benjamin N. Cardozo → Harlan F. Stone → Louis Brandeis →
firstPageInUnitedStatesReports	1 →
fullCaseName	United States v. Butler →
holding	Congress may not use its taxing and spending power to regulate matters reserved to the states → key provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 were unconstitutional → the Agricultural Adjustment Act’s processing taxes and benefit payments exceeded Congress’s constitutional authority →
impact	constrained early New Deal agricultural policy → invalidated federal agricultural production control program →
jurisdiction	United States →
lawApplied	Taxing and Spending Clause → Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution → U.S. Constitution →
legalIssue	constitutionality of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 → scope of the Taxing and Spending Clause →
majorityJusticesJoining	Charles Evans Hughes → George Sutherland → Harlan F. Stone → James Clark McReynolds → Pierce Butler → Willis Van Devanter →
majorityOpinionBy	Owen J. Roberts →
plaintiff	United States →
precedentStatus	partially superseded by later New Deal era decisions →
relatedConcept	coercion of states through conditional spending → general welfare clause →
relatedHistoricalContext	New Deal →
relatedLegislation	Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 →
subsequentDevelopment	later limited by Helvering v. Davis → later limited by Steward Machine Co. v. Davis →
topic	federalism in the United States → limits on federal spending power →
volumeInUnitedStatesReports	297 →
yearDecided	1936 →

Referenced by (13)

Subject (surface form when different)	Predicate
Agricultural Adjustment Administration → Steward Machine Co. v. Davis →	relatedCase
General Welfare Clause doctrine → Taxing and Spending Clause →	significantCase
Butler ("United States v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1 (1936)") →	caseCitation
General Welfare Clause doctrine ("United States v. Butler (1936)") →	clarifiedIn
AAA →	declaredUnconstitutionalInCase
United States v. Butler →	fullCaseName
Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 →	legalChallenge
Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936 ("Supreme Court decision in United States v. Butler") →	motivatedBy
James Clark McReynolds →	notableCase
Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 →	partiallyInvalidatedBy
Butler →	partyInCase