TrendMacro conversation with Judge Michael McConnell, the Constitutional scholar fighting tariffs in the Supreme Court

Judge McConnell says the tariffs case before the Supreme Court hinges on historical questions of executive power. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act empowers the president to do nine things in response to declared emergency, and imposing tariffs isn't one of them. The Trade Act passed three years earlier defines the limited scope of the president's tariff powers in response to a trade deficit. The power to impose tariffs is explicitly reserved to Congress, as literally the first of its enumerated powers in the Constitution. In response to the Court of Appeals ruling against the tariffs last month, the Trump administration could have run out the clock and continued to collect tariffs while the lower court considered technical questions. But the administration is rushing it to the Supreme Court instead, which has agreed to hear the case on an expedited schedule that points to a far earlier decision than might otherwise be expected in such a consequential case, perhaps by year-end. This does not mean the government expects to win, having been trounced so thoroughly in the lower courts. Rather, it is a necessary move for the government to win in the court of public opinion by acting consistently as though the tariffs are a necessary response to an emergency. If SCOTUS strikes down the tariffs it will likely order refunds, which in lower court arguments the government has implicitly acquiesced in.