National Industrial Recovery Act

One Republican congressman from Pennsylvania said the president’s National Industrial Recovery Act “Russianizes the business of America.”

The National Industrial Recovery Act — the foundational legislation of the New Deal — comes in at an economical 18 pages, but that hardly gives one a sense of its massive impact on the economy.

The National Industrial Recovery Act, also known as the Blue Eagle Act, was the centerpiece of what is known as the First New Deal, which ran from 1933 to 1935.

The doctrine is basically a creation of the Supreme Court in the later 19th century, and even then it did not control the outcomes of cases; the court has only twice in its entire history applied the doctrine as a matter of constitutional law, invalidating the central components of the New Deal’s National Industrial Recovery Act in 1935 — some 150 years after the Constitution’s structural provisions were written.

Within his first 100 days, Roosevelt had done a great deal to restore confidence in government, providing emergency financial aid to those who were struggling, passing the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Securities Act, and implementing a number of other regulatory and relief measures.