Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer · ¶257

In United States v. Midwest Oil Co., supra, this Court approved executive action where, as here, the President acted to preserve an important matter until Congress could act — even though his action in that case was contrary to an express statute. In this case, there is no statute prohibiting the action taken by the President in a matter not merely important but threatening the very safety of the Nation. Executive inaction in such a situation, courting national disaster, is foreign to the concept of energy and initiative in the Executive as created by the Founding Fathers. The Constitution was itself “adopted in a period of grave emergency.... While emergency does not create power, emergency may furnish the occasion for the exercise of power.” The Framers knew, as we should know in these times of peril, that there is real danger in Executive weakness. There is no cause to fear Executive…

U. S. Reports, bound volume
U. S. Reports, volume 343, at 579 (Library of Congress) · transcription: Caselaw Access Project
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