Court Opinion

ID: 9419058
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:45:15.584553+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:14.836153
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice McReynolds and Mr. Justice Butler,
dissenting.
We are of opinion that the decree below should be affirmed.
In our view the challenged order of the Secretary must succumb to two manifest objections. It is unnecessary for us to dissect the record in search of other impediments.
First. Congress possesses the powers delegated by the Constitution — no others. The opinion of this Court in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935), 295 U. S. 495 — noteworthy because of modernity and reaffirmation of ancient doctrine — sufficiently demonstrates the absence of Congressional authority to manage private. business affairs under the transparent guise of regulating interstate commerce. True, production and distribution of milk are most important enterprises, not easy of wise execution; but so is breeding the cows, authors of the commodity; also, sowing and reaping the fodder which inspires them.
Second. If perchance Congress possesses power to manage the milk business within the various states, authority so to do cannot be committed to another. A cursory examination of the statute shows clearly enough the design to allow a secretary to prescribe áccording to his own. errant will and then to execute. This is not government .by law but by caprice. Whimseys may displace delibér*583ate action by chosen representatives and become rules of conduct. To us the outcome seems wholly incompatible with the system under which we are supposed to live.