ly reported these events to Congress,
conceding Congress's power to supersede his Order; but Congress failed
to do anything about the matter either then or a fortnight later, when
the President again brought up the subject in a special message.[422] It
had in fact provided other methods of dealing with such situations, in
the elaboration of which it had declined repeatedly to authorize
governmental seizures of property to settle labor disputes. The steel
companies sued the Secretary in a federal district court, praying for a
declaratory judgment and injunctive relief. The district court issued a
preliminary injunction, which the court of appeals stayed.[423] On
certiorari to the court of appeals, the district court's order was
affirmed by the Supreme Court by a vote of six justices to three.
Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court in which Justices
Frankfurter, Douglas, Jackson, and Burton formally concurred. Justice
Clark expressly limited his concurrence to the judgment of the Court.
All these Justices presented what are termed "concurring" opinions. The
Chief Justice, speaking for himself and Justices Reed and Minton,
presented a dissenting opinion.

The Doctrine of the Opinion of the Court

The chief points urged in the Black opinion are the following: There was
no statute which expressly or impliedly authorized the President to take
possession of the property involved. On the contrary, in its
consideration of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, Congress refused to
authorize governmental seizures of property as a method of preventing
work stoppages and settling labor disputes. Authority to issue such an
order in the circumstances of the case was not deducible from the
aggregate of the President's executive powers under Article II of the
Constitution; nor was the Order maintainable as an exercise of the
President's powers as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. The power
sought to be exercised was the lawmaking power, which the Constitution
vests in the Congress alone. Even if it were true that other Presidents
have taken possession of private business enterprises without
congressional authority in order to settle labor disputes, Congress was
not thereby divested of its exclusive constitutional authority to make
the laws necessary and proper to carry out all powers vested by the
Constitution "in the Government of the United States, or any Department
or Officer thereof."[424]

The Factual Record

The pi