r/politics • u/Mason_Miami • 1d ago

Conservative group claims Trump's tariffs illegally usurp powers of Congress

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/this-unlawful-impost-must-fall-conservative-group-sues-trump-claiming-tariffs-are-unconstitutional-exercise-of-legislative-power/
17.0k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

354 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.3k

u/GaimeGuy Minnesota 1d ago edited 1d ago

I really don't see how any common sense interpretation of these tariffs can conclude they are in response to an emergency. The government has been quite clear that it is simply imposing them because it wants to, shifting from talks of cartels, to fentanyl, to "ripping us off blah blah blah" to "Nothing can be done to change my mind." on a day to day basis.

There's no policy objective, so what's the emergency? And emergency tariffs are the only ones that are supposed to be permitted, like when a nation tries to undercut a market on seasonal goods to critically wound its domestic supply - this is generally the purview of ministries in parliamentary bodies, so it makes sense to vest the authority in the executive branch to respond in kind, in those instances

33

u/JPesterfield 1d ago

What kind of emergency would have tariffs as an answer anyway?

I know there can be some really slow moving emergencies(climate change, an asteroid going to hit in x years, etc.), but were emergency powers really meant for those?

31

u/CatWeekends Texas 1d ago

The law was meant to be a quick response to countries that are preparing to attack us.

11

u/Jaesaces Ohio 19h ago

What kind of emergency would have tariffs as an answer anyway?

Essentially, economic warfare.

A good example would be oil. When a country begins to invest in oil to reduce their dependance on imports, OPEC increases the supply and lowers the price of oil to such a degree that the buildout stops making sense. After investors have pulled out, oil prices are returned to normal.

The idea is that hostile nations could use their dominance in a particular industry to hinder any attempts to build that industry domestically.

Of course that's not what's happening now, but I would presume that's the idea.