The Supreme Court’s Tariff Reckoning: Why the Justices Appear Ready to Rein In Presidential PowerThe Last WireI set out to understand the case now before the Supreme Court about presidential tariffs. What I found instead was a constitutional tripwire that has been quietly armed for decades.
This is not really a fight about steel, aluminum, or trade deficits. It is a test of whether a president can reach for a Cold War–era emergency statute and, with a single signature, impose what functionally amounts to a nationwide tax without Congress ever voting on it. The lower courts were openly skeptical. The justices, based on the questions they are asking, may be more than skeptical.
If the Court rules that these tariffs exceed presidential authority, it will mark one of the sharpest reassertions of congressional power in a generation. If it rules the other way, it will cement a model of executive economic rule by “emergency” that future presidents of both parties will be eager to exploit.
I went into this case expecting a technical trade dispute. I came away convinced it is a stress test of the constitutional order itself.
Read the full analysis at: The Last Wire
