Bipartisan Group of Prominent Legal Scholars and Former Government Officials Files Amicus Brief Supporting Our Case Challenging Trump’s “Liberation Day” Tariffs
A bipartisan group of prominent legal scholars and former government officials have filed an amicus brief supporting the lawsuit against Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, recently filed by the Liberty Justice Center and myself, on behalf of five US businesses severely harmed by the policy.
The brief unites big-name constitutional law scholars across the political spectrum in a way I have rarely seen. Legal scholars on the brief include Steve Calabresi (Northwestern), Harold Koh (Yale), Richard Epstein (NYU), Michael McConnell (Stanford, also former federal judge), Alan Sykes (Stanford), and Gerard Magliocca (Univ. of Indiana).
Steve Calabresi is a famed conservative constitutional law scholar and co-founder of the Federalist Society. Michael McConnell is also one of nation’s leading conservative/originalist constitutional law scholars, and Richard Epstein is probably the world’s leading libertarian legal scholar. Calabresi literally (with Christopher Yoo) wrote the book on unitary executive theory. If he says an assertion of executive power exceeds constitutional bounds, it almost certainly does! McConnell is also a leading expert on executive power.
Koh, Sykes, and Magliocca are leading progressive scholars. Koh is one of the nation’s leading experts on the constitutional law of foreign affairs, and Sykes on international economic and trade law. Magliocca is a prominent writer on constitutional history.
Former government officials joining the brief include former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former Virginia Governor and Senator George Allen, former Senator and Secretary of Defense Charles Hagel, and more.
I never would have expected to see Richard Epstein, Steve Calabresi, and Harold Koh all on the same brief on a major issue. But here they are, together opposing “taxation by proclamation.” Donald Trump brought them together. He alone could do it!
Many thanks to Josh Claybourn and Gerard Magliocca for their work bringing this g
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