Full Credit Case Summary

Case Name: Wickard v Filburn

Case Citation: 317 U.S. 111 (1942)
I.

Legal Issues (10 points)

a.
b.

II.

Can Congress regulate the production of wheat intended for personal use and
not placed in interstate commerce?
Can Congress regulate via the commerce power trivial local, intrastate
activities that have an aggregate effect on interstate commerce?

Key Holding/s of the Case (10 points)

a.
Regulation of personal crops - Congress can regulate production of wheat
(and by extension any other crop) grown solely for personal use.
b.
Regulation of trivial amounts/aggregation test - Congress can regulate the
production of wheat (and by extension any other crop) that will never enter
interstate commerce even if the amount grown is trivial, if the aggregate of all
such crops would have an affect on interstate commerce.

III.
Summary of the Facts of the Case (15 points) - The Agriculture Adjustment
Act of 1938 (AAA) set quotas on the amount of wheat grown by farmers and established
penalties for overproduction. The goal of the Act was to stabilize the market price of
wheat by preventing shortages or surpluses. Mr. Filburn sold part of his wheat crop and
used the rest for his own consumption. The amount of wheat Filburn produced for his
own consumption combined with the amount he sold exceeded the amount he was
permitted to produce.
Secretary of Agriculture Wickard assessed a penalty against him. Mr. Filburn
refused to pay, contending that the Act sought to limit local commercial activity and
therefore was unconstitutional because it exceeded the scope of Congresss power under
the Commerce Clause.
Filburn sought an injunction against enforcement of the Act and a declaratory
judgment that the wheat marketing provisions of the AAA were unconstitutional for
exceeding the scope of Congresss commerce power. The district court entered judgment
for Filburn and the Supreme Court granted cert.
IV.
Reasoning (15 points).
The wheat marketing quota and attendant penalty
provisions of the AAA, even when applied to wheat not intended in any part for
commerce but wholly for consumption on the farm, are within the commerce power of
Congress. The power to regulate interstate commerce includes the power to regulate
commodity prices and practices affecting them.

The effect of the AAA is to restrict the amount of wheat that may be produced for
market and the extent to which one may avoid resorting to the market by producing for
his own needs. That the production of wheat for consumption on the farm may be trivial
in some cases is not enough to remove the grower from the scope of federal regulation
where the aggregate effect of such behavior by many others is far from trivial.
Wheat grown for home consumption is a factor with great volume and variability
and it would have a substantial influence on price conditions. When prices are high the
wheat may flow into the market and check price increases. Furthermore wheat grown for
personal consumption supplies the need of the grower who would otherwise purchase
wheat in the open market.