The National Security Law Podcast: A Deep Dive into the Steel Seizure Case

This week, we explore the iconic 1952 decision of the Supreme Court in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, better known as the “Steel Seizure Case.” It’s an all-time classic regarding the separation of powers in general and war-related powers in particular (not to mention constitutional interpretive method, theories of emergency power, and more). In this deep dive, we:

• place the ruling in factual and historical context;
• trace the doctrinal threads across the many separate opinions (and, yes, we’ll use the phrase “tripartite framework” … talk about an old chestnut!);
• explore what the Court did and did not actually settle, and what sort of shadow the case has cast over time;
• identify the impact of key subsequent rulings (including Dames & Moore v. Regan and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld).

This episode was pre-recorded on Aug. 23. We’ll be back with regular programming after Labor Day!