Court Cases Cited Within This Web Site
N.L.R.B. v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1 (1937)
 

Foundational landmark case that opened the Pandora’s Box to using the Constitution’s commerce clause to implement and enforce social agendas.

The National Labor Relations Board, created under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, found that Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp. had violated the act through unfair labor practices, and subsequently affected interstate commerce.

The practices charged were that the corporation was discriminating against members of a local union with regard to hire and tenure of employment, and was coercing and intimidating employees in order to interfere with their self-organization. The discriminatory and coercive action alleged was the discharge of certain employees.

The corporation failed to comply with orders of the Board and the Board then petitioned the Circuit Court of Appeals to enforce the order. The court denied the petition holding that the order lay beyond the range of federal power. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.

That Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp. was engaged in interstate commerce was not in doubt, but the corporation argued the issue was one of labor relations, not interstate commerce. The Act was therefore challenged in its entirety as being unconstitutional. The Court upheld the Act. 

After the decision in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 295 U.S. 495 (1935), Franklin Roosevelt sought to pack the Court with New Deal supporters. After this case, FDR presumably no longer saw any such need.

Full Text: N.L.R.B. v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1 (1937)