In a vaguely written opinion, Clark suggested that the availability of alternatives was fatal to the legitimacy of the President's action.
He argued that only Congress could take this type of emergency action through its authority to make laws, and nothing in his statutory analysis persuaded him that it would permit the President to carry out these seizures without its consent. Like Frankfurter, Burton examined the legislative history of the Taft-Hartley Act. This case, however, fell in the third and most problematic category for the government, which contains situations when the President directly conflicts with Congress. In the middle category lay situations in which Congress was silent, known as the twilight zone. The President would be owed the greatest deference when he had received authority from Congress, whether explicit or implicit. He cleanly identified three categories of situations that could involve the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches. The lack of a formal declaration of war played a role in his analysis.Īlthough he did not write the majority opinion, Jackson crafted the most influential perspective on this case. If Congress had passively accepted it, even without formally authorizing it, that might have been enough for Frankfurter to accept its legitimacy. Similar to Black, Douglas felt that even a national emergency did not give the President inherent powers beyond those that could be found in the Constitution or were granted by Congress.Īlthough he took a more measured approach than Black and Douglas, Frankfurter analyzed the legislative history surrounding the Taft-Hartley Act and similar provisions in finding that Congress had shown its opposition to this type of executive action. The formalist perspective of Black led him to argue for a clear rule that only authorization by Congress or the Constitution, whether explicit or implicit, could give the President the power to act. Negotiations stalled after the court issued the stay, since it also barred increasing wages while review was pending and left the steel industry with no motivation to meet the union's demands. On appeal, however, the government received a stay of the injunction pending review by the Supreme Court. Once the government was ordered to surrender its control of the steel plants, the union began the strike. (Not even Truman likely agreed with this view.) He denied the motion on equitable grounds, but a different judge issued a preliminary injunction after a possible tactical error by an assistant Attorney General, which suggested that the government supported a spectacularly broad interpretation of executive power. These decisions would prove costly.Īfter Truman announced the seizure to the national media, the steel industry sought a temporary restraining order from a federal district judge. For the same reasons, Truman relied on the inherent powers of the President rather than seeking special Congressional authorization. The government also could have used the recently passed Selective Service Act, but the process required by this law seemed too cumbersome for the demands of the time-sensitive situation. The government could have used the Taft-Hartley Act to declare a national emergency and forestall the union's strike, but the fault for the dispute seemed to lie more with the industry than the union.
There were several alternatives to this aggressive move. Determined to keep supplies flowing to the troops in Korea, Truman seized the production facilities of the steel companies so that they could be operated by the federal government under their current management. The strike loomed ever closer as both sides showed no interest in compromise. During this time, however, the United Steel Workers of America planned to launch a nationwide strike across all of the major steel producers based on the industry's reluctance to grant wage increases without an increase in prices by the government. Truman created a Wage Stabilization Board that was designed to minimize labor disputes while curbing the inflation of prices and wages. To further the war effort, the government relied on defense contractors that in turn relied on the steel industry. There was no congressional declaration of war to support his action. Following a United Nations resolution, President Harry Truman brought the United States into the Korean War after North Korea invaded South Korea.