SCOTUS Hears Tariff Arguments

From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson and this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether President Trump’s controversial tariffs can stand under 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Even the high court’s conservative justices were skeptical of Trump’s use of the statute to declare a trade emergency and impose tariffs.

Chief Justice John Roberts disputed U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer that the IEPA law didn’t need to use the word ‘tariffs’ since Congress had already given the president broad foreign policy powers …

ROBERTS … “The vehicle is imposition of taxes on Americans, and that has always been the core power of Congress. So, to have the president’s foreign affairs power trump that basic power of Congress, seems to me to kind of at least neutralize between the two powers, the executive power and the legislative power.”

Sauer stressed repeatedly that the law gave President Trump tariff powers indirectly …

SAUER … “But it uses the word ‘regulate importation’ and, historically, a core, central application of that, a big piece of that, has always been to tariff.”

But conservative Neil Gorsuch stressed Congress did not specifically delegate tariff power to the president in 1977.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Michael McConnell …

McCONNELL … “This is miles away from any delegation we have ever seen.”

The Trump tariff case that’s on an expedited schedule is the most consequential of the high court’s term, with broad implications for agriculture.