The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board painted President Donald Trump's upcoming fight at the Supreme Court as a battle for the soul and the roots of our nation.
Specifically, Trump is set to argue for the constitutionality of his emergency tariffs, which a string of lower courts have said is an unlawful exercise of economic power, as he is imposing new taxes without congressional consent.
"It’s hard to overstate the importance of these cases for the U.S. constitutional order and economy," wrote the board, which has been criticizing Trump's tariff adventures for months. "Article I vests Congress with authority over taxation and foreign commerce. This was a response to the British Crown’s taxation of the colonies without their consent" — the very dispute that led to the Revolutionary War and America's independence from Britain.
"Mr. Trump this spring slapped tariffs on most countries around the world, declaring that the U.S. trade deficit and foreign fentanyl are national emergencies. He has since adjusted the tariff rates, often to punish or reward foreign governments. See his recent 10% border tax hike on Canada in retaliation for the government of Ontario’s TV ad quoting Ronald Reagan’s criticism of tariffs," wrote the board. "Such arbitrary taxation without representation is precisely what the Constitution’s Framers sought to prevent by vesting power over taxes and trade with Congress."
Trump, the board noted, still doesn't even seem to understand how tariffs work, claiming that other countries pay the taxes, when in reality U.S. importers pay them and raise prices for consumers in response. And a bigger issue for him at the Supreme Court is, as lower courts have noted, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) doesn't even mention the word "tariffs."
"As Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the Court in 2001, Congress doesn’t typically 'hide elephants in mouseholes,'" wrote the board. "Presidents have used IEEPA to freeze assets of foreign governments and nationals, restrict U.S. companies from doing business with them, limit export of technologies and ban imports from adversaries. No President before Mr. Trump used the law for tariffs."
"Mr. Trump has warned of an economic catastrophe if the Court rules that his emergency tariffs are unconstitutional," the board concluded. "We realize it’s no small matter for the Court to rule against a President on his signature priority. But the constitutional stakes take precedence here. The real calamity for the country and its constitutional system would be a decision that blesses Mr. Trump’s claim that every President can be the Tariff King."
