OPINION: No tariffs without representation
When President Trump announced in February that he was imposing stiff new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, he said his power to do so came from the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, a law passed by Congress in 1977. Two months later he again invoked that statute as he unveiled his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs, which mandated levies of between 10 percent and 50 percent on imports from nearly every country on earth…
In two lawsuits filed this month, one spearheaded by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, the other by the Liberty Justice Center, a half-dozen American companies are asking federal courts to strike the tariffs down as unlawful, based on the plain language of the IEEPA. They argue as well that to uphold the sweeping tariff authority claimed by the White House would violate the Supreme Court’s major questions doctrine. Under that rule of statutory construction, judges cannot assume that the executive branch has the authority to make “decisions of vast economic and political significance” unless Congress, using clear language, has granted that authority. It cannot be merely inferred…
April 20, 2025
Originally Published in The Boston Globe