Secretary of Agriculture v. Central Roig Refining Co. et al. (338 U.S. 604)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 6, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 338 U.S. 604 · 70 S. Ct. 403
- Docket
- No. 27
- Argued
- October 17, 1949
- Decided
- February 6, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 7–1
- Majority author
- Justice Frankfurter
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Minton, Justice Clark, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Frankfurter (wrote), Justice Reed
- Dissenting
- Justice Black (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Frankfurter delivered the opinion of the Court. These three cases bring before us the validity of an order of the Secretary of Agriculture, issued by him on the basis of the Sugar Act of 1948. It is claimed that the Secretary disobeyed the requirements of that Act. If it be found that the Secretary brought himself within the Act, the power of Congress to give him the authority he exercised is challenged. By a series of enactments Congress addressed itself to what it found to be serious evils resulting from an uncontrolled sugar market. The central aim of this legislation was to rationalize the mischievous fluctuations of a free sugar market by the familiar device of a quota system. The Jones-Costigan Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 670, the Sugar Act of 1937, 50 Stat. 903, and the Sugar Act of 1948, 61 Stat. 922, 7 U. S. C. (Supp. II, 1949) §§ 1100-60. The volume of sugar moving to the continental United States market was controlled to secure a harmonious relation between supply and demand. To adapt means- to the purpose of the sugar legislation, the Act of 1948 defines five domestic sugar-producing areas; two in the continental United States and one each in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. To each area is allotted an annual quota of sugar, specifying the maximum number of tons which may be marketed on the mainland from that area. § 202 (a). A quota is likewise…
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