Youngstown Company v. Sawyer (1952)

The president did not have the power to take possession of most of the country’s steel mills in order to avert a nation-wide strike. “The President's power, if any, to issue the [executive order] must stem either from an act of Congress or from the Constitution itself…The Order cannot properly be sustained as an exercise of the President's military power as commander in Chief of the Armed Forces….Nor can the Order be sustained because of the several provisions of Article II which grant executive power to the President… The power here sought to be exercised is the lawmaking power, which the Constitution vests in the Congress alone, in both good and bad times.”

The case touched on constitutional principles including due process rights, checks and balances, and separation of powers.