Supreme Court’s ‘declaration of independence’
The court’s first merits ruling — a final judgment on the lawfulness of an executive action — of President Trump’s second term amounts to a “declaration of independence,” says Adam Liptak, the chief legal correspondent of The New York Times, in a news analysis.
Starting with the 2024 ruling that gave Trump substantial immunity from prosecution and continuing through a score of emergency orders provisionally greenlighting an array of his second-term initiatives, Trump had had an extraordinarily successful run before the court, Liptak notes.
But the court’s ruling against Trump’s tariffs on Friday “reasserted its role as a check on the other branches of government including the president, after a year when numerous critics and legal scholars had increasingly voiced doubts,” says Reuters.
“The ruling, authored by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, did not waffle in its scope or effect, or leave questions about the legality of the tariffs to another day. It unswervingly struck them down, making no mention of the consequences for refunds, trade deals or the Republican president himself,” Reuters says.
The 6-3 decision upheld a lower court’s ruling that Trump’s use of a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act didn’t give him the power to impose tariffs that he claimed.
“The decision shows that the Supreme Court is serious about policing the scope of power delegated to the president by Congress,” says Jonathan Adler, a professor at William & Mary Law School in Virginia.
Roberts and fellow conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett — both appointed by Trump in his first term — joined the court’s three liberal members to strike down his tariffs. The three other conservative justices dissented.
The divisions among the conservatives on the ruling “suggest that in cases related to presidential power, the Trump administration and those who have challenged its policies in court cannot assume that the justices nominated by Republican presidents will see things the same way,” says a separate Times analysis. “The split also creates ways for the court’s liberals to potentially forge coalitions — particularly with the chief justice and Justice Barrett — that could make action at the court unpredictable in coming years.”
Trump called the justices who ruled against him “fools” and “lapdogs” for Democrats. “They’re very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution,” Trump told reporters. “It’s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests.”
Trump immediately invoked Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose tariffs of up to 15 percent to address a “large and serious balance-of-payment deficit,” which can remain in effect for no more than 150 days unless Congress authorizes an extension.
Trump’s proclamation issued Friday provided for all goods imported into the United States to be subject to a 10 percent tariff.
On Saturday, he said he was lifting the tariff to the maximum 15 percent allowable.
It’s unclear what will happen to nearly 20 framework deals or firmer trade agreements that the Trump administration has reached with countries in recent months that were based on the IEEPA tariff threats, says a separate Reuters article.
Trump, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday that the deals should remain in effect, even if those rates were higher than the temporary universal tax.
Efforts to claw back the estimated $133 billion to $175 billion of previously collected tariffs that now are deemed illegal are bound to be complicated and likely will favor larger companies with more resources. And consumers who are hoping for a refund are unlikely to get one, says The Associated Press.
Here is a detailed analysis of the court’s ruling, from Amy Howe at SCOTUSblog.
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