Some Major Questions for Wednesday's Oral Argument in the Tariff Case
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in two consolidated cases that present the question whether President Trump's imposition of tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) was valid. A provision of the IEEPA grants the president the power to declare a national emergency to address "any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States." The Solicitor General (SG) argues in his principal brief that the president validly declared emergencies to impose: "reciprocal" tariffs on every country in the world (and those Antarctic penguins) to address the ostensible emergency of persistent trade deficits; and the on-again-off-again tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico to address the ostensible emergency caused by the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. The SG's brief suggests that a president...