My New Lawfare Article on “The Constitutional Case Against Trump’s Trade War”
Today, Lawfare published my article “The Constitutional Case Against Trump’s Trade War.” Here is an excerpt:
President Trump’s massive “Liberation Day” tariffs, imposed April 2, on goods imported from almost every country in the world are likely to do grave damage to the U.S. and world economies, impose an enormous tax increase on Americans (an average of some $1,300 per household per year), and poison relations with America’s allies. They are based in part on a completely nonsensical “reciprocity” formula, compounded by mathematical errors.
The tariffs are also a blatantly illegal usurpation of legislative power. That is why, on Monday, the Liberty Justice Center and I filed a lawsuit challenging the tariffs in court on behalf of five American import businesses severely harmed by them. We have a strong case.
Article I of the Constitution clearly gives Congress, not the president, the power to regulate “commerce with foreign nations” and to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” The administration claims the tariffs are authorized by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA). IEEPA gives the president authority to impose various types of sanctions in situations when there is “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, if the President declares a national emergency with respect to such threat.” But, as Peter Harrell points out, it doesn’t mention tariffs, and no previous president has used IEEPA to impose them.
Even if tariffs are permitted, they can be used only to address an “emergency” that amounts to an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” The supposed “emergency” here is the existence of trade deficits with various countries. An “emer
Article from Reason.com
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