. . . I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-…
. . . I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope—because the Nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out. We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country’s interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful, law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. . . . —President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the situation described in this speech by
Read DetailsIn 1936, the Supreme Court of the United States declared the…
In 1936, the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1933 unconstitutional. Justice Owen Roberts provided the following explanation for the Court’s decision. We are not now required to ascertain the scope of the phrase “general welfare of the United States” or to determine whether an appropriation in aid of agriculture falls within it. Wholly apart from that question, another principle embedded in our Constitution prohibits the enforcement of the Agricultural Adjustment Act. . . . It is a statutory plan to regulate and control agricultural production, a matter beyond the powers delegated to the federal government. —United States v. Butler, 1936 Which constitutional amendment did the Supreme Court use as a basis of this ruling?
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