The Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935.

By a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court upheld the old-age benefits provisions of the Social Security Act of 1935. Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo,Cardozo, Benjamin N.;Helvering v. Davis[Helvering v. Davis] in the opinion for the Court, adopted a broad view of the federal congressional power to tax and spend under Article I, section 8, of the U.S. Constitution. Cardozo rejected the argument that the Tenth Amendment traditionally held that taxing and spendingTaxing and spending clause on welfare was the province of the states, not the federal government. He noted that the Social Security Act was, in part, a response to a national calamity to which Congress surely had the power to respond.Social Security ActGeneral welfare clause;Helvering v. Davis[Helvering v. Davis]Social Security Act

Commerce, regulation of

Federalism

States’ rights and state sovereignty

Taxing and spending clause