Wickard vs. Filburn was a case that helped grow the power of the federal government. Roscoe C. Filburn was the plaintiffin this case and Claude R. Wickard, Secretary of Agriculture was the defendant. Filburn was a farmer from Ohio who grew the exceeded amount of wheat considering the amount of acres owned according to the law. Mr. Filburn was fined and ordered to pay a penalty which he strongly disagreed to.
In 1941, Filburn grew more than he was allowed based on acres he owned. He grew 23 acres and yielded 239 bushels which was an extra 11.9 acres that he was not suppose to. His notice in July of 1940 stated Filburn was only allowed 11.1 acres to grow wheat on. When finding out what Filburn had done, he was fined by the Secretary of …show more content…
This also controlled the market price of wheat by not producing too much and not producing too little. Filburn wanted to prove that this was unconstitutional since it was for his own use. If farmers bought wheat to feed farm animals this was considered commerce. If farmers grew wheat only to feed their animals, that affected the interstate commerce. The Commerce Clause is a part of the Constitution that gives the Federal Government the power to regulate interstate commerce between states. At this time, The Supreme Court stated, ” The intended disposition of the crop here involved has not been expressly stated…”and later” whether the subject of the regulations in question was “produced” “consumed” or “marketing” is, therefore, not maternal for purpose of deciding the question of federal power before us…but even if appellees activity be local and though it may not be regarded as commerce, is still whatever is nature, be reached by Congress if it exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce and this irrespective of whether such effect is what might at some earlier time have been defined a ‘direct’ or ’indirect’.