Birdnow's Aviary

February 20, 2026

SCOTUS Screws America

Timothy Birdnow

The U.S. Supreme Court just gutted Trump's Entire Foreign and Tax policy, declaring his tariffs are illegal.

They actually went and did this even though the aw states the President can impose tariffs and every President before him has done so repeatedly.

The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts and co-signed by Amy Coney Barrett (nobody expects sensibility from HER) and sadly Neil Gorsuch. I suspect Gorsuch and Roberts rejected this because they wanted to appear "unbiased" and give Trump a major loss. Certainly Roberts has never been hung up on Constitutional originalism and he has to know that every President has exercised this power and in much the same way as Trump has albeit to a lesser degree.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito all dissented.

The majority ruled the President overstepped his bounds by implementing

the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, known as IEEPA, which authorized the President to impose tariffs in a state of emergency, which the President is authorized to declare. Mr. Trump had declared several states of emergency to utilize his authority under the law.

Kavanaugh, writing the majority opinion, noted that tariffs have always been a power the Executive Branch has wielded and nobody complained:

"(Tariffs) are a traditional and common tool to regulate importation.” Moreover, he suggested, although "I firmly disagree with the Court’s holding today, the decision might not substantially constrain a President’s ability to order tariffs going forward … because numerous other federal statutes authorize the President to impose tariffs and might justify most (if not all) of the tariffs at issue in this case.”

And right he is.

As Kavanaugh pointed out:

The United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others."

Trump has now lost ALL economic leverage with foreign countries and don't think for a minute they don't know that. I promise you the flood gates will re-open at our southern border now that Mexico knows it's safe to invade us again. And all the factories that were moving here will rethink that now that they know they can avoid doint that and paying more for American labor. Canada and other countries can then have their tilted playing fields. China will again flood our markets with their goods and grow rich.

Trump's tariffs were working extremely well and our economy was flourishing. Now it's anybody's guess how this will go.

Republicans in Congress can try to amend the law and authorize these tariffs but I doubt they will, and if they do the Democrats will filibuster.

Trump's entire foreign policy is now in tatters and I hope those bastards in black robes are happy. They just did irreparable damage to the Republic.

Maybe Trump should tell them he doesn't have the money to pay them! (He can't according to the Constitution, damnitall!)

Until the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913 the primary sources of revenue for the United States government (which was forbidden to impose a direct tax on the citizenry) were tariffs, along with an excise tax and the sale of public lands. After the creation of the income tax tariffs fell out of favor, and particularly after Smoot Hawley was imposed by Congress and the tariff war exacerbated the Great Depression. But Smoot Hawley was not the problem - monetary manipulation, particularly, a sudden contraction of the money supply by the Federal Reserve, was the primary cause. Smoot Hawley was just timed wrong, coming in when the country needed more trade, not a trade war.

As I have said every President has used tariffs to impose their will on foreign actors and Trump is hardly an exception. And this was all done by Presidents using this exact same statute.

So to state now that it is illegal after almost fifty years is disingenuous in the extreme.

Yes, Congress has the power of the purse. But it was Congress that gave this power to the President in the first place and if they don't like it it is up to them to amend the law, not SCOTUS which has no right to meddle in government funding. SCOTUS just usurped the authority of the other two branches of government.

If they are going to strike down taxes because a minority in governmeht doesn't like them then why not strike down the Income Tax? Yes,, there is a Constitutional amendment making it legal, but nowhere is the IRS specifically mentioned, nor is the RATE of taxation mentioned. Why can't the Court simply rule it's not Constitutional to have a progressive income tax and that IRS enforcement is illegal? I don't see any way this is any different.

If they are going to make their own rules maybe the President should make HIS own and simply ignore the ruling? That is what Alexander Hamilton argued should be done if the Courts became too big for their britches. Read Federalist 78:

Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them. The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments. .

Congress and the President are both elected officials and therefore responsive to the Will of the People, something Hamilton hammers in this particular paper. SCOTUS is appointed and for life, and Hamilton thought the other branches of government would rein them in. Sadly the Democrats figured out they could use the courts as weapons to advance their agenda when out of power and certainly this ruling hsa done that for them. The Gorsuch and Barrett were appointed by Trump and they screwed him. They are tools of the Democrats, activist judges who usurp the authority of the legislative and judicial branches of government.

If they were serious about this they would have struck down the law that authorized Trump to take this action but they chose not to. Insread they simply struck down Trump's use of that law. That is legislating from the bench.

A pox upon their houses!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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