Social Security Act
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| Nicknames | SSA |
|---|---|
| Citations | |
| Statutes at Large | Pub.L. 74–271, 49 Stat. 620, enacted August 14, 1935 |
| Codification | |
| U.S.C. sections created | 42 U.S.C. ch. 7 |
| Legislative history | |
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| Major amendments | |
| Social Security Amendments of 1965 | |
| United States Supreme Court cases | |
| Steward Machine Company v. Davis, Helvering v. Davis | |
The Social Security Act (SSA), Pub.L. 74–271, 49 Stat. 620, enacted August 14, 1935, now codified as 42 U.S.C. ch. 7, was a social welfare legislative act which created the Social Security system in the United States. Although the program has been altered since its signing, the original purpose was to provide federal assistance to those unable to work.
One of the most influential pieces of legislation that came out of the Second New Deal was the Social Security Act, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. The act laid the groundwork for the modern welfare state in the United States with its primary focus to provide aid for the elderly, the unemployed, and children.
Industrialization and the urbanization in the 19th Century created many new social problems, and transformed ideas of how society and the government should function together because of them. As industry expanded, cities grew quickly to keep up with demand for labor. Tenement houses were built quickly and poorly, cramming new migrants from farms and Southern and Eastern European immigrants into tight and unhealthy spaces. Work spaces were even more unsafe. In 1890, Jacob Riis wrote that “the quick change of economic conditions in the city…often out paces all plans of relief.”
Over time the SSA was amended to give money to states to provide assistance to aged individuals (Title I), for unemployment insurance (Title III), Aid to Families with Dependent Children (Title IV), Maternal and Child Welfare (Title V), public health services (Title VI), and the blind (Title X).
In the 1930s, the Supreme Court struck down many pieces of Roosevelt's New Deal legislation, including the Railroad Retirement Act. The Court threw out a centerpiece of the New Deal, the National Industrial Recovery Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and New York State's minimum-wage law. President Roosevelt responded with an attempt to pack the court via the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937. On February 5, 1937, he sent a special message to Congress proposing legislation granting the President new powers to add additional judges to all federal courts whenever there were sitting judges age 70 or older who refused to retire. The practical effect of this proposal was that the President would get to appoint six new Justices to the Supreme Court (and 44 judges to lower federal courts), thus instantly tipping the political balance on the Court dramatically in his favor. The debate on this proposal lasted over six months. Beginning with a set of decisions in March, April, and May 1937 (including the Social Security Act cases), the Court would sustain a series of New Deal legislation Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes played a leading role in defeating the court-packing by rushing these pieces of New Deal legislation through and ensuring that the court's majority would uphold it.
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