Michael McConnell on the Tariff Cases and their Significance
Stanford law professor, leading conservative constitutional law scholar, and former federal judge Michael McConnell has an excellent New York Times op ed on the cases challenging Trump’s tariffs, and their significance. An excerpt:
Are President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs on, or are they off? And, more important, will legal challenges to these levies put the brakes on the seizure by presidents of both parties of ever-increasing unilateral power?
Two federal courts recently ruled that Mr. Trump lacks authority to impose them, but a specialized federal court with authority over tariff cases, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, paused the enforcement of those decisions, ordering lawyers to submit legal briefs before a hearing on Monday. One or both cases are likely to land at the Supreme Court in short order.
Understandably, most of the commentary has focused on the practical ramifications for the president’s trade negotiations and the American economy. But the cases may be even more important for the future of a fundamental component of the Constitution’s architecture: the separation of powers, intended by the founders to prevent any of the government’s three branches from becoming all powerful.
The tariff litigation is shaping up as the biggest separation-of-powers controversy since the steel seizure case in 1952. There, President Harry Truman assumed control over the nation’s steel mills to ensure th
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