The Sick Chicken Case

“Hoffer offers a skillful and insightful account of not only the Schechter litigation itself, but also of the political, economic, regulatory, and jurisprudential context from which it emerged, as well as its aftermath and legacy. His analysis is refreshingly impartial and levelheaded. Even those who may differ on some points of interpretation will profit from engagement with this lucid and informative study.”—Barry Cushman, author of Rethinking the New Deal Court: The Structure of a Constitutional Revolution

“Williamjames Hull Hoffer has brought to life an important Supreme Court opinion that provides not only a history of the Court during the New Deal but a potential window to the future as the so-called administrative state has come under risk in the federal courts. A fundamental question in both A.L.A Schechter Poultry and the present is how far the federal government can go in protecting the national health and the economy through expert staffed federal agencies. Hoffer’s exceptional historical presentation is both timely and worthwhile to historians, political scientists, and that part of the public interested in nation’s governance.”—Joshua E. Kastenberg, author of Goldwater v. Carter: Foreign Policy, China, and the Resurgence of Executive Branch Primacy

“Williamjames Hull Hoffer has taken the Sick Chicken Case, one only a constitutional law enthusiast could love, and used it to great effect, giving the reader both a detailed and telescopic study of the constitutional and political battles of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency. It is a well-rendered study of the origins of New Deal legislation and litigation, politics and law that reverberate nearly a century later.”—Michael S. Ariens, author of The Lawyer’s Conscience: A History of American Lawyer Ethics

“Hoffer skillfully places the Schechter Poultry case in its historical and political context, and together with excellent legal analysis has produced a compelling and vibrant treatment of this landmark case. This excellent volume will be useful to anyone interested in the case, the nondelegation doctrine, the New Deal, the [in]famous Court packing plan, and the legal and historical development of federal power to regulate the national economy.”—Jack M. Beerman, author of The Journey to Separate but Equal: Madame Decuir’s Quest for Racial Justice in the Reconstruction Era

“This lively book provides fresh insights into the facts of Schechter, and it places the law of the case into a richly textured political, economic, and cultural context. In doing so, Hoffer provides a prism through which to examine the rise of the administrative state and the constitutional history of the past century and a half.”—William Ross, author of World War I and the American Constitution