'That's exactly what they are': Sotomayor schools lawyer claiming tariffs aren't taxes

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor clashed with Solicitor General John Sauer, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, after he claimed that tariffs were not a tax burden on the American people.

During oral arguments about Trump's global tariff agenda, Sotomayor said she didn't buy the government's argument that the president had the power to enact tariffs.

"I just don't understand this argument," the justice explained. "It's a congressional power, not a presidential power to tax. And you wanna say tariffs are not taxes, but that's exactly what they are. Degenerating money from American citizens' revenue."

"I don't understand this argument, that it's equivalent, or that foreign powers, or even an emergency, can do away with the major questions doctrine," she continued.

Sauer countered by claiming Trump's power to enact tariffs was "a foreign-facing regulation of foreign commerce."

"So Biden could have declared a national emergency in global warming and then gotten his student forgiveness?" Sotomayor wondered.

"I don't think he could have gotten student loan forgiveness," Sauer replied.

"Why? It's foreign-facing, to tax fossil fuel or to do something else," the justice observed. "That's all Biden would have had to do with any of his programs?"

"The power to impose tariffs is a core application of the power to regulate foreign commerce," Sauer insisted.