(May 30, 2025 at 7:43 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:(May 30, 2025 at 6:50 am)Alan V Wrote: I realize that exceptions to the Constitution's delegation of tariffs to Congress have been written into law, but Trump is pressing the boundaries of any reasonable interpretations of those laws to make them do what he wants them to. That's what the judges' pushback on his interpretation of the IEEPA was about. And yes, Trump can resort to other laws to try to impose the same tariffs. But he is certainly testing the limits of presidential powers, and is undermining essential checks and balances in the process.
If Congress was in the hands of Democrats, Trump would already be constrained by their pushback against his abuse of the tariff laws.
None of which has anything to do with whether the Supremes will subvert the Constitution to give Trump what he wants. You can’t imagine that they will, I can’t imagine that they won’t.
Boru
My point that a Congress in the hands of Democrats would already have pushed back was meant to underscore the fact that Congress still has the power of tariffs, that the president only has certain powers given to him by Congress, which can also be taken away. So what I said does in fact bear on the issues in question.
Yes, SCOTUS can hand the president the powers of Congress, but they will be violating the Constitution if they do. They effectively will be passing new laws instead of interpreting them.
As an aside, I think that the United States has already crossed the line into a plutocracy, or perhaps even into fascism, by electing a pathological lying authoritarian president twice. The only important question is whether the courts can or will hold the line throughout the next several years before our system of government is completely undermined.
