United States v. Butler
United States Supreme Court
297 U.S. 1 (1936)
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) empowered the Secretary of Agriculture to set crop production limits and tax farmers exceeding them, using the proceeds to fund grants encouraging farmers to limit production and thereby control agricultural prices; crop processor Butler (plaintiff) sued challenging the AAA's constitutionality, the district court ruled the tax must be paid, an intermediate appellate court reversed, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Whether Congress may use its independent taxing and spending power to indirectly regulate agricultural production, a subject reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment, when Congress lacks direct authority to regulate that subject matter itself.