At the height of Nazi power in 1934, the USA stepped onto the same
socialist path by expanding the Department of Agriculture (USDA) with
the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA).  The socialism copied the
National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis) and the soviet-style
schemes of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  It used a new
broad power scheme to levy taxes for the so-called "general
welfare" as the basis for its program of agricultural socialism,
government spending and price controls. http://rexcurry.net/usda.html

The National Socialist German Workers' Party used a National Food
Estate membership stickpin that is shown at
http://rexcurry.net/usda.html   It has a swastika with a barley stalk
and a sword and was the emblem of the Reichsnahrstand (National Food
Estate) the organization that was similar to our Department of
Agriculture and that that interfered with the production of foodstuffs,
as well as price distortions).

In 1934 lower courts had begun overturning major parts of F.D.R.'s
socialism.  The most courageous court opinions came from rulings
invalidating the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). Lower courts ruled
the AAA unconstitutional and the Supreme Court followed in January
1936, ruling that ".... a statutory plan to regulate and control
agricultural production, [is] a matter beyond the powers delegated to
the federal government...."  There was a dark cloud around that silver
lining, however, because the same opinion stated that:  ".....the power
of Congress to authorize expenditure of public moneys for public
purposes is not limited by the direct grants of legislative power found
in the Constitution" and began to dig the grave of liberty.

The Supreme Court's ruling on the AAA was a major rebuff for F.D.R.'s
socialism and it was important for Social Security as well since it
seemed to portend what lay ahead for the Social Security Act.  The AAA
was a cynical attempt to shift blame from the government for the
collapse of the farm economy when earlier government acts caused the
Depression.  The AAA was soviet style "agrarian reform" similar to
that tried in openly socialist countries for the government to take
control of all agriculture.  The actual mechanism by which this control
was to be achieved was to levy taxes on the processing of foodstuffs
and to use the proceeds from this tax to fund agricultural socialism
--in effect, using the subsidies as "incentives" to take control of
free farmers. Fearing how the courts would see this new function of
government, the socialists who contrived the AAA deliberately placed
the tax provisions and the subsidy provisions in separate titles of the
act, so they could argue that they were not necessarily connected to
each other; that is, so they could argue that the purpose of the tax
was not to control production but was merely to raise revenue. This was
the same cynical strategy adopted by the socialists who contrived the
Social Security Act, as can be seen in the separate Titles II and VIII
of the original Social Security Act.

In early 1937 President Roosevelt made what turned out to be the
biggest political blunder of his career, and it was a blunder that
became a disaster for liberty.  F.D.R. was bitter about the Supreme
Court striking down his socialism in favor of liberty and F.D.R. would
derisively refer to the justices as "those nine old men." It didn't
matter that only four of them consistently opposed his socialism. The
Court was split down the middle in political terms. There were three
justices sympathetic to the F.D.R.'s socialist programs (Brandeis,
Stone and Cardozo); There were four justices who voted against
everything the Congress and the Administration tried to do (McReynolds,
Butler, Van Devanter and Sutherland).  There were two, Chief Justice
Charles Evans Hughes and Justice Owen Roberts, who were often "swing
votes" on many issues. In the spring of 1935 Justice Roberts joined
with the four justices to invalidate the Railroad Retirement Act. In
May, the Court threw out a leviathan piece of F.D.R.'s socialism, the
National Industrial Recovery Act. In January 1936 a passionately split
Court ruled the Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional. In
another case from 1936 the Court had the good sense to rule New York
state's minimum wage law unconstitutional. The upshot was that liberty
was being protected from massive statism.

F.D.R.'s response to all of this was to seek even more socialist
power. On February 5, 1937 he sent a special message to Congress
proposing legislation granting the president new powers to add
additional judges to all federal courts whenever there were sitting
judges age 70 or older who refused to retire. Fraudulently couching his
argument as a reform to help relieve the workload burden on the courts,
F.D.R.'s made it clear what he really had in mind.  F.D.R. would be
able to appoint six new Justices to the Supreme Court (and 44 judges to
lower federal courts), rip up the constitutional protections for
liberty, and force socialism upon everyone. The debate on this proposal
was heated, widespread and over in six months. F.D.R. was rebuffed, his
reputation in history tarnished for all time.  Even so, the Court
cravenly buckled. Beginning with a set of decisions in March, April and
May 1937 (including the Social Security Act cases) the Court sustained
a series of socialist legislation.

Despite the intense controversy the court-packing plan provoked, and
the divided loyalties it produced even among F.D.R.'s supporters, the
legislation appeared headed for passage, when the Court itself made a
sudden change. In March 1937, in a pivotal case, Justice Roberts
unexpectedly turned his back on liberty, shifting the balance on the
Court from 5-4 against to 5-4 in favor of most of F.D.R.'s socialist
schemes.  In the March case Justice Roberts voted to uphold a minimum
wage law in Washington state just like the one he had earlier found to
be unconstitutional in New York state. Two weeks later he voted to
uphold the National Labor Relations Act, and in May he voted to uphold
the Social Security Act.  This sudden reversal in the Court meant that
the pressure on F.D.R.'s cohorts lessened and they felt free to
oppose the craven court-packing plan. This sudden switch by Justice
Roberts is referred to as "the switch in time that saved nine" or
"the switch in time that socialized nine."

It has been downhill ever since. As an attorney, I consider the court
decisions under FDR to be the most shameful decisions of the U.S.
Supreme Court.

Though all of those justices (and F.D.R.) are long gone, the Court has
never reversed it's humiliating disgrace.  It is not too late for the
Court to reverse its betrayal of liberty. It is never too late to stand
for freedom.

The unconstitutionality of FDR's socialism was clear.  Under the
"reserve clause" of the Constitution (the 10th Amendment) powers not
specifically granted to the federal government are reserved for the
States or the people.  The federal government cannot expand its
influence because federal laws must be based in the Constitution.
Obviously, the Constitution did not mention any method for interfereing
in farms and agriculture, nor for Americans to be robbed by the
government for that purpose. The cynical Committee on Economic Security
(CES) schemed to circumvent the Constitution, either by claiming the
commerce clause or by claiming broad power to levy taxes and expend
funds to "provide for the general welfare," as the basis for the scams.
Ultimately, the CES propagandized the taxing power as the basis for the
new program, and Congress rubber stamped it.  The courts were the last
defenders of liberty, and were striking down F.D.R.'s socialist
legislation for a while.

The time was during the Depression.  The Depression had been caused by
the federal government and by socialistic legislation (e.g. the Federal
Reserve Act of 1913 and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act).  F.D.R. heaped on
more socialism that worsened the Depression, into a disaster that
lasted all the while that F.D.R. remained in office.  That is why
F.D.R.'s depression is called the "Great Depression."

The government still hides the chilling fact that the AAA and the
Social Security Act and so much of the USA's socialism was enacted in
the mid 1930's, and that the National Socialist German Workers' Party
had been in existence since 1920 (with electoral breakthroughs in 1930
and dictatorship in 1933), expanding Otto von Bismarck's socialism.
In 1935, U.S. politicians intentionally stepped onto the same path that
had already led to a police state for the National Socialist German
Workers' Party.  http://rexcurry.net/ssnswastika.html

Earlier, the USA betrayed liberty and embraced socialism's dark side
for agriculture in 1862 when the Department of Agriculture was imposed.
The USDA's shield is set against a dark blue circle with 44 white
stars, representing the states of the Union at the time the seal was
adopted. Below the shield is a scroll inscribed "1862 Agriculture is
the foundation of manufacture and commerce 1889," 1862 being the date
the department was originally established and 1889 the date it was
given cabinet rank.

Despite going out of existence in 1857, the Senate Agriculture
Committee was revived in 1863.  The federal government was in the "War
of Northern Aggression" against the Southern States.  In expanding his
wartime government, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law three
Acts in rapid succession in the spring and summer of 1862; first, the
Organic Act creating the Department of Agriculture; second, the
Homestead Act; and third, the Morrill Land Grant College Act. (Daniel
J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience, Vintage Press,
New York, 1973, p. 119.)
As early as 1838, socialist farmers in the USA had been petitioning
Congress for the establishment of a Department of Agriculture.  A
Petition of 1840 received an unfavorable report by the House
Agriculture Committee. In the 1850s, support had grown for increasing
federal theft from taxpayers so that the government could throw more
money at agriculture, and for consumers to be forced to pay higher
prices dictate by government regulations and price controls. The
Department of Agriculture was finally created when President Lincoln
signed the Department of Agriculture Organic Act, on May 15, 1862.

(Oppose socialism and support libertarianism. To learn more see Rex
Curry at http://rexcurry.net or contact rexy@ij.net or
rexatious@hotmail.com or ecurry@interaccess.net ).