Trump’s Tariffs and the Courts

Just how much power does the president have?

That was the question in front of the federal courts that ruled against President Trump’s tariffs in the last couple days. The judges weren’t deciding whether the tariffs are good for the country but whether the president has the power to impose them all by himself.

Maybe that sounds like a technical question. It’s not. It’s not an exaggeration to say that this question defines America. The framers rebelled against Britain because they felt that the king had too much power and that they didn’t have enough say in the politics that shaped their lives. They wrote the Constitution to avoid crowning another monarch.

Through that lens, a little-known trade court in New York blocked most of Trump’s tariffs, including those that remained from “Liberation Day.” Yesterday, an appeals court agreed to preserve the tariffs while it considers the case. The markets rose — cautiously — on the news. America’s trading partners also reacted skeptically because the rulings could lead to more chaos as legal battles play out.

Today, I want to focus on the question that the courts face.

Checks and balances

At face value, the Constitution seems clear on this topic. It says Congress, not the president, has the power to “lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.” And tariffs are taxes.

But Congress can delegate some powers to the president. It has passed several laws that allow the president to levy tariffs in case of emergency — say, if another country undermines a U.S. industry that’s important to national security. Trump used one of these laws, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, to impose his “reciprocal” tariffs on other countries. (Madeleine Ngo, who covers economic policy, explained the law.)