United States v Haley
A late-1950s to early 1960s string of court cases which were ultimately decided in favor of the United States. J. Evetts Haley Sr. and his son (J. Evetts Haley Jr.) had violated the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 by planting more wheat than was legally allowed at the time (many staple crops were limited in order to control supply, which would prevent prices from falling too low). The Haleys had originally won in a lower court, but the appeals process took the case to the US Supreme Court, which overturned the lower court decisions.
Speech Relevance[edit]
From 'Encroaching Control':
27 years ago, the American farmer was told that if the government subsidized him in his need, it would not mean government control. Now we have the case of Evetts Haley, Jr. a Texas university professor and rancher who raised wheat on his own land, fed it to his own cattle and was fined $4000 for so doing. And the United States Supreme Court upheld that conviction. They ruled in a single sentence, yes an agency of the federal government has the right to tell an American citizen what he can grow on his own land for his own use.
Granted, legalese can be a little difficult to follow, but this sentence may be the one Reagan was speaking of:
In light of the issues tendered in the papers filed on that appeal, there can be no doubt that this Court's judgment finally established the Government's right to the relief sought in this action, subject only to the District Court's resolution of Haley's procedural defense, still unadjudicated, to the effect that the Government had failed to comply with conditions requisite to the effective establishment of a wheat acreage allotment for Haley.
I believe the court is saying that the $4000 fine was within the scope of the law, if another court (District Court) finds that the government had not properly established what the Haleys' wheat allotment should be.
Of Additional Interest[edit]
Haley Sr. published a book named A Texan Looks at Lyndon in 1964 which, among other things, detailed the political ties between Lyndon B. Johnson and Billie Sol Estes.
Source Links[edit]
J. Evetts Haley Sr. (Texas State Historical Association)
