Steward Machine Co. v. Davis

Steward Machine Company v. Davis
Argued April 8–9, 1937
Decided May 24, 1937
Full case nameSteward Machine Company, Petitioner
v.
Harwell G. Davis, Individually and as Collector of Internal Revenue
Citations301 U.S. 548 (more)
57 S. Ct. 883; 81 L. Ed. 1279; 1937 U.S. LEXIS 1199
Case history
Prior89 F.2d 207 (5th Cir. 1937); cert. granted, 300 U.S. 652 (1937).
Holding
The unemployment compensation sections of the Social Security Act are constitutional.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Charles E. Hughes
Associate Justices
Willis Van Devanter · James C. McReynolds
Louis Brandeis · George Sutherland
Pierce Butler · Harlan F. Stone
Owen Roberts · Benjamin N. Cardozo
Case opinions
MajorityCardozo, joined by Hughes, Brandeis, Stone, Roberts
DissentMcReynolds
DissentSutherland, joined by Van Devanter
DissentButler
Laws applied
U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8

Steward Machine Company v. Davis, 301 U.S. 548 (1937), was a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the unemployment compensation provisions of the Social Security Act of 1935, which established the federal taxing structure that was designed to induce states to adopt laws for funding and payment of unemployment compensation.[1] The decision signaled the Court's acceptance of a broad interpretation of Congressional power to influence state laws.

The primary challenges to the Act were based on the argument that it went beyond the powers granted to the federal government in the U.S. Constitution and that it involved coercion of the states that called for a surrender by the states of powers essential to their quasi-sovereign existence, in contravention of the Constitution's Tenth Amendment.