The National Recovery Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Agency, both part of the New Deal, were accused of being unconstitutional. Small business owners felted disadvantaged by big businesses, who had a part in the drafting of the NRA's codes. Organized labor was upset because they were effectively shut out. In the Supreme Court case Schecter vs. United States, the agency was ruled as unconstitutional. The Agricultural Adjustment Agency was accused of hurting southern tenant farmers (Sharecroppers) in the south. Cotton planters took the federal money, removed the land from production then displaced the sharecroppers. In the case of United States vs. Butler, the court ruled the AAA was unconstitutional as well.
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The National Recovery Administration was a part of the New Deal ruled as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The Agricultural Adjustment Act was originally ruled unconstitutional, but was rewritten to be considered constitutional.
conservative court - old justices who thought New Deal too costly
overruled FDR's programs (said unconstitutional)
1. 1935 struck down NIRA
2 1936 AAA
The major conflict during Franklin Roosevelt was that The US Supreme Court ruled six of eight New Deal Programs unconstitutional. President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress hoped to improve economic conditions in the United States during and immediately after the Great Depression through a series of programs known as the New Deal. Unfortunately, Roosevelt inherited a court full of older justices who disapproved of the legislation, and declared six of Congress' eight major Acts unconstitutional, thwarting Roosevelt's plans. Roosevelt was angry with the justices, whom he referred to as the "Nine Old Men," for refusing to allow New Deal policies to work as intended. In Roosevelt's mind, the Supreme Court presented a major obstacle to economic recovery and stabilization because of their conservatism.
"Some of the New Deal programs to fight the Depression were later ruled unconstitutional."
FDR felt the Justices on the Supreme Court were becoming too conservative and declaring too many of his New Deal measures as unconstitutional. FDR proposed a plan to add a new justice for each Supreme Court Justice over 70 years of age and increase the size of the Court up to 15. This would give the President the power to "pack the court" with justices who would support the New Deal.
The main reason was the opposition to the expanding federal government. Republicans and Conservative Democrats alike argued that there wasn't anything in the Constitution that explicitly stated that Roosevelt could make these sweeping changes and overhauls.
The American Liberty League charged the New Deal with limiting individual freedom in an unconstitutional, "un-American" manner. To them, programs such as compulsory unemployment insurance smacked of "Bolshevism," a reference to the political philosophy of the founders of the Soviet Union.