Challenging The Stabilization Act
In the case of Amalgamated Meat Cutters v. Connally, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters sued defendant John B Connally, the then chairman of the Cost of Living Council and the secretary of the United States Treasury. The Meat Cutters approached the court with two arguments, which were condensed into one. The Plaintiffs' primary concern was pursuing a twenty-five cent an hour increase on general wages. It was argued by the Plaintiffs that this was an agreement that was reached in April 1970 and demanded that the wage increase take effect September 6, 1971. The Plaintiffs' second argument was that this act was "unconstitutional and the Executive Order was invalid", because one of the stipulations of the act was that "prices, rent, wages and salaries shall be stabilized for a period of 90-days" as stated by President Nixon.
This was the salient argument because it was the first time that the act was opposed and the Executive Order was being questioned, since the Plaintiffs believed that the order did not do justice to the workers under unions and that the this act imposed on the power of the unions, since they had to operate under a 90-day spending freeze. This freeze did not allow the unions to protect the union workers. This was due largely to the fact that the Pay Board and Price Commission, under both the act and the Executive Order both monitored and controlled wages.
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the act, rejecting an argument that it was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority, by citing statutes such as: "Beacon Theatres, Inc. v. Westover, 359 U.S. 500, 507, 79 S.Ct. 948, 3 L.Ed.2d 988 (1959)", for the "government's contention of adequacy of law" and "Field v. Clark, 143 U.S. 649, 692-693, 12 S.Ct. 495, 505, 36 L.Ed. 294 (1892)" for the "permissibility of legislative power within the Government's limits". These were two amongst many cases cited by the defense, all of which proved the legitimacy and flexibility of the Act and the Government's authority and range to enforce this Act.
Read more about this topic: Economic Stabilization Act Of 1970
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