Slate Daily Feed Amicus | When Tariffs Crashed Into SCOTUS
Nov 8, 2025
Marc Busch, a professor of international business diplomacy at Georgetown University, joins to unpack the implications of Trump's controversial tariffs. He explains the intricacies of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and its historical context. The discussion dives into whether trade deficits justify emergency declarations and critiques the government's framing of tariffs as regulatory tools. Busch warns about the potential shift in presidential powers regarding tariffs and examines the Supreme Court's surprising skepticism towards executive overreach.
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IEEPA's Broad Emergency Power Raises Alarms
- The Trump tariffs were justified under IEEPA as authority to "regulate transactions involving any property" during an emergency.
- That interpretation raises separation-of-powers concerns because IEEPA grants sweeping emergency powers without clear congressional limits.
Historical Statutes Frame Today's Dispute
- The legal dispute ties back to Nixon's temporary tariffs and the 1974 Trade Act, especially Section 122 on balance of payments.
- Comparing IEEPA to these targeted statutes framed whether Congress would have used explicit "tariff" language if it intended such authority.
Tariffs Are Taxes In Economic Reality
- The Solicitor General argued a regulatory-versus-revenue distinction to avoid calling the tariffs "taxes."
- Justices probed that claim because tariffs economically function as taxes borne largely by Americans.