The Steel Seizure Case

In April 1952, with a potential nationwide strike of steelworkers looming, President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order to declare that the Secretary of Commerce was taking control of 87 steel plants.

The order was very controversial at the time because there was no constitutional provision that let the president seize private property, including companies. Truman justified the executive order to avoid the strike because of the ongoing Korean War, stating that the steel industry was “indispensable.”

But the steel industry responded with a lawsuit. In the 1952 case of Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer, the Supreme Court ruled that Truman’s executive order was invalid, so it was struck down.