We should thank the judges who stopped Trump's destructive tariff policy | Opinion
Republican lawmakers should be relieved. Stopping President Trump's tariffs had to be done, even if they didn't have the stomach to do it.
A three-judge federal panel ruled late May 28 that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA). The administration has already appealed the ruling, but the result is that nearly all of Trump’s tariff policies have been blocked, to the delight of the stock market.
Trump's tariff policies ravaged the American economy and fractured our relationships with other nations, while ceding ground to our enemies, because of the whims of the most erratic leader on earth. Meanwhile, Congress refused to step in to reclaim the power that the president doesn't have and has abused.
Fortunately, the U.S. Court of International Trade halted the economic nightmare of Trump’s unending tariff authority. That ruling was followed just a day later by a second that also went against Trump's tariffs. Unfortunately, the courts have again been forced to weigh in on Trump's actions, further politicizing the judiciary branch.
Courts are right, tariff authority belongs with Congress
The power to enact tariffs lies with Congress, but the president can use it for limited purposes. This isn't one of those purposes.
The IEEPA grants the president authority when “any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States, if the President declares a national emergency with respect to such threat.”
Prior to the Trump administration, no president had weaponized the IEEPA to enact tariff policy. Trump’s retaliatory tariffs against nearly every country in the world were not in response to any emergency, but instead represented unlimited authority from the president. The court made that clear.
“The question in the two cases before the court is whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 delegates these powers to the President in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world,” states the unanimous opinion. “The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder.”
For example, the tariffs against Canada and Mexico were purported to deal with a trafficking emergency, tying it to the southern border crisis. But the court decided that “the Trafficking Tariffs fail because they do not deal with the threats set forth in those orders.”
Tariff authority belongs to Congress, and Trump’s unlimited tinkering with tariff rates obviously ran afoul of the constitutional separation of powers. It shouldn't have taken this court decision for this to be clear.
Trump's administration continues to attack the courts
The reality is that Congress should have ended this mess weeks ago by passing legislation to curb Trump's supposed authority to enact tariffs unilaterally. Instead, congressional cowardice during a second Trump administration keeps forcing the courts to step in.
Trump and his allies have decided to attack judges, and this decision was no different. The administration was quick to blame judicial activism for the ruling, rather than Trump exceeding his authority.
“The judicial coup is out of control,” White House adviser Stephen Miller posted on X.
Restoring powers to their proper branches of government is a good thing, actually, and judges who participate in decisions like this are doing their job, not usurping power for themselves.
The supposed “activist judges” in this case were appointed by three presidents, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama and Trump himself. Hard to see how a Trump appointee is somehow an anti-Trump activist, and if he is, then it is Trump who is to blame for that judge.
If Trump were smart, he and Republicans in Congress would take this as an off-ramp to his exceedingly destructive tariff policies. The GOP would be better off if this ruling stuck and lawmakers started doing their job.
However, Trump and his allies won't be able to help themselves. This battle isn’t over, and the tensions between Trump and the judicial branch are only likely to become hotter.
Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for Paste BN and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.