Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling saying that Trump lacks the authority to implement most of his tariffs. The ruling does not take effect until October 14.
Trump has now indicated that he will request an expedited ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump absurdly declared, “If you take away tariffs, we could end up being a third-world country.” Actually, if Trump keeps dictating unconstitutional acts (such as tariffs), we could end being a third-world country.
Tariffs are a tax, plain and simple. They are a tax on imported goods. You can argue about who ultimately pays the tax, but it is still a tax.
The reason America grew so wealthy in the 1800s and early 1900s wasn’t because of tariffs. It was in spite of tariffs. Up until 1913, there was no Federal Reserve. There was no 16th Amendment, which instituted a federal income tax. Government spending was a tiny fraction of what it is today. And most things were not regulated by the federal government as they are today.
Trump is a complete fool when it comes to economics. You can be sure though that Trump will find anyone else to blame when we hit a recession. He will blame “Too Late” Powell. He will blame the courts for striking down his tariffs.
A Test for the Supreme Justices
This will be a great test for the justices on the Supreme Court. The so-called liberal justices will probably vote in favor of striking down the tariffs just because it goes against Trump.
The interesting thing will be the so-called conservative justices. Will they actually follow the Constitution, or will they play politics by giving Trump and some of his supporters what they want?
To be sure, these tariffs are absolutely unconstitutional. Trump is just dictating them from his throne. They seem to change from day to day on a whim.
The Constitution is clear. The very beginning of Article 1, Section 8 states, “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises…”. It is the first thing there assigned to Congress.
Section 10 states, “No state shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection Laws.”
There is certainly no authority for the executive branch to institute taxes on imports. It would have to be done by Congress to be constitutional.
The Trump administration has used the International Economic Powers Act as justification for Trump’s tariffs. This act in itself is probably unconstitutional. But even here, is Trump really going to claim that all of his tariffs constitute an emergency?
He has cited so many different reasons for putting tariffs on various countries. Will they argue that India buying oil from Russia is an emergency? Politics in Brazil is an emergency? The trade deficit is an emergency? A foreign leader not doing what Trump wants is an emergency? They will have to argue that anything qualifies as an emergency.
Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas
It will be interesting how the more conservative justices will rule on the tariffs. There are no libertarians on the Supreme Court. There are no true constitutionalists. But the closest ones are probably Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch.
These are the unpredictable ones. Even though there is nothing “conservative” about tariffs, will they side with Trump on this? Or will they do a proper reading of the Constitution and rule against these taxes?
This will be a good litmus test for them to see if they are on the side of politics or the Constitution. For the rest of them, it doesn’t matter how they vote because we already know they are charlatans. Again, the leftists will just go against Trump. It just so happens that that is the correct and constitutional decision in this case.
We can only hope that these tariffs will get struck down. It is possible the Supreme Court just doesn’t hear the case, which means that the previous ruling against the tariffs will stand.
Even though Trump will blame the courts, it is the best thing for Americans. We are getting a recession either way. We don’t need added taxes to the things we buy on top of the recession.