Case Name: A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States
Citation: 295 U.S. 495 (1935)
Issue: Whether Congress can regulate as regarding the slaughtering and selling by defendants which was solely in New York.
Facts: Schechter is a chicken slaughterhouse in New York. Almost all the poultry coming to New York is sent from other states. Schechter was convicted on eighteen counts for violating the “Live Poultry Code.”
This Code required sellers to sell only entire coops or half-coops of chickens and made it illegal for buyers to reject individual chickens as well as regulated employment (collective bargaining, prohibiting child labor, 40-hour work week, and minimum wage). Came out of the National Industrial Recovery Act.
Holding: Congress cannot regulate this because Schechter’s activities only occur in New York and only has an in-direct impact on interstate commerce.
Reasoning: The interstate commerce ended once the defendants purchased the chickens and took them to their slaughterhouse. The flow in interstate commerce (or “stream of commerce”) had ceased.