Can the President Declare a Trade ‘Emergency’? On the Supreme Court’s Tariff Case

The Libertarian

The Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin

History, News, Politics

4.7 • 994 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Richard Epstein delves into one of the most consequential Constitutional questions of our time: can the president unilaterally impose tariffs under emergency powers? With the Supreme Court set to review Donald Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPA) to levy trade barriers, Epstein explains what the Constitution actually says about tariffs, how far Congress can delegate its authority, and why the doctrine of the “unitary executive” could reshape the balance between the legislative and executive branches. From Article I to Justice Taft’s 1928 tariff case, the discussion traces the fine line between lawful delegation and unconstitutional abdication—and what’s at stake for trade, separation of powers, and presidential authority.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Libertarian with Richard Epstein. I am Charles C.W. Cook. This is a production of the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
0:24.4	Richard, welcome to your own show.
0:26.8	It's always nice to be invited to participate on my own show by you, Charles.
0:30.9	It is.
0:31.4	It is.
0:32.4	All right.
0:33.0	Today we're going to talk about tariffs, in particular the tariffs that have been imposed by President
0:39.5	Trump under the IEPA law and tariffs that are about to be tested at the Supreme Court, which
0:47.9	has agreed to take a case that looks at their statutory basis and potentially constitutionality.
0:57.0	So let's start with the Constitution.
1:00.0	Tariffs are mentioned in the Constitution in the same section that deals with taxes.
1:06.0	They're in Article 1.
1:08.0	The power is given to Congress.
1:14.4	What does it say, Richard, about tariffs?
1:21.8	Well, I mean, essentially what happens is the first thing that we do is under Article 1, Section 8, I believe it is.
1:26.7	What we do is we have a list of the enumerated powers that Congress shall have. And just to read it aloud,
1:28.5	it says the Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises.
1:35.1	Then it tells you what it could use them for. It is clear to virtually everybody that duties,
1:40.6	imposts, and excises include tariffs of one form or another.
1:45.3	The basic notion is that tax is somewhat different from a tariff in that a tax can
1:50.7	often be imposed upon overall wealth, where generally speaking, a tariff is imposed on a
1:56.8	particular transaction in which some goods are entered into the country.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.