Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority

Petitioner
George Ashwander
Respondent
Tennessee Valley Authority
Petitioner's Claim
That the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was not a legitimate federal agency, and that it did not have the authority to sell the electrical power that was a by-product of its dam construction.
Chief Lawyers for Petitioner
Forney Johnston, James M. Beck
Chief Lawyers for Respondent
John Lord O'Brian, Stanley F. Reed
Justices for the Court
Pierce Butler, Charles Evans Hughes (writing for the Court), James Clark McReynolds, Owen Josephus Roberts, Harlan Fiske Stone, George Sutherland, WillisVan Devanter
Justices Dissenting
Louis D. Brandeis, Benjamin N. Cardozo
Place
Washington, D.C.
Date of Decision
17 February 1936
Decision
Legislation establishing the TVA was upheld by a 8-1 vote, as was its right to sell electrical power.
Significance
Today Ashwander is remembered primarily for Justice Brandeis's "Ashwander rules," which provide guidelines for avoiding overly broad constitutionalinterpretation.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, a program to promote rural electrification, was created in 1933 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt's "first" New Deal. The Ashwander case came about when minority shareholders of the Alabama Power Company objected to the company's proposal to purchase some of thesurplus energy generated by one of the TVA's dams. Claiming that the TVA lacked the authority to sell its energy, the shareholders also challenged the constitutionality of the statute that created the federal agency. In the name ofone of their members, George Ashwander, a group of shareholders filed suit against the TVA in federal district court.
After the district court annulled the contract between the TVA and the powercompany, the TVA appealed to the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which then reversed the ruling of the lower court. Ashwander petitioned theU.S. Supreme Court for review.
Ashwander marked one of the only times that the Supreme Court upheld the legitimacy of New Deal agencies prior to Roosevelt's 1937 court-packing plan. (The plan ultimately failed to receive congressional approval, but four conservative justices who opposed Roosevelt's progressive economic and socialagenda soon left the Court anyway). Surprisingly, the Court dismissed the shareholder's suit, by implication upholding the statute that created the TVA bya vote of 8-1. Chief Justice Hughes, writing for the Court, added that the Constitution grants the federal government the right to sell property (in thiscase, energy) that properly belongs to it. Justice Brandeis, in a concurringopinion, added that the Court should never have heard the case in the firstplace, as it was chiefly a shareholders' internal dispute that did not actually involve any constitutional questions.
Brandeis Proposes "Ashwander Rules"
It is primarily for Justice Brandies's concurrence, in fact, that Ashwander is remembered. To buttress his assertion that the Supreme Court shouldsidestep judging the constitutionality of legislation wherever possible, andto help the Court determine what to avoid, Brandeis proposed the following rules:

1. The Court will not pass upon the constitutionality of legislation in a friendly, nonadversary, proceeding . . . 2. The Court will not "anticipate a question of constitutional law in advance of the necessity of deciding it . . . " 3. The Court will not "formulate a rule of constitutional law broader than is required by the precise facts to which it is to be applied. . . " 4. The Court will not pass upon a constitutional question although properly presented by the record, if there is also present some other ground upon which the case may be disposed . . . 5. The Court will not pass upon thevalidity of a statute upon complaint of one who fails to show that he is injured by its operation . . . 6. The Court will not pass upon the constitutionality of a statute at the instance of one who has availed himself of its benefits . . . 7. "When the validity of an act of the Congress is drawn in question, and even if a serious doubt of constitutionality is raised, it is a cardinal principle that this Court first ascertain whether a construction of the statute is fairly possible by which the question may be avoided."

Related Cases

• Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Company, 157 U.S. 429 (1895).
  
• Gall v. Exxon Corp., 418 F.Supp. 508 (1976).
  
• LaShawn A. v. Barry, 69 F.3d 556 (1995).

Louis Brandeis
Louis Brandeis was an associate justice of the Supreme Court (1916-1939) andsocial reformer best know for work done on behalf of the labor movement, including a campaign to overturn Lochner v. New York, which permitted an unlimited work day for laborers. He was often referred to the "peoples' attorney" for his efforts in defense of the common man against big business. Brandeis, along with partner Samuel Warren, developed the notion of the "Right to Privacy" with an article written for the Harvard Law Review in 1890. Because of his uncompromising support of individual liberties, minority rights, and social justice he is considered one of the greatest justices to have served onthe Supreme Court.
Brandeis wrote a brief for a case involving the institution of a ten hour work day for women. The "Brandeis brief," as it became know, was so influentialthat the Supreme Court upheld the ten hour work day making reference to the brief in its written opinion. The brief also significantly changed the way legal cases were argued by legitimizing social science data in argumentation. Brandeis was also instrumental in establishing the Federal Reserve System (1913) and the Federal Trade Commission (1939).
Sources
Edward Frank Magill. Great Lives From History. Salem Press, 1987.