“Everyone is Overreacting” on the Tariff Ruling, Stephen Vladeck Says

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Washington, News, Politics, President, Wickenden, Wnyc, Barack, Obama, Lizza

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Washington Roundtable is joined by Stephen Vladeck, a Georgetown Law professor and self-proclaimed “Supreme Court nerd,” to examine President Trump’s increasing defiance of the Supreme Court. The panel discusses whether the Court’s strong rebuke of the President’s tariff policy obscures a broader pattern of expanding executive power through the use of emergency “shadow docket” rulings, a kind of shortcut for dealing with emergency requests. “I think that’s where the Justices have shown the most inclination to vote in ways that might be inconsistent as a matter of legal principle, but consistent as a matter of partisan political preference,” Vladeck says. Vladeck is the author of “The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic.”

This week’s reading:

“Donald Trump’s State of the Union Was Long and Wrong,” by Susan B. Glasser
“The Supreme Court’s Complicated Takedown of Trump’s Tariffs,” by Amy Davidson Sorkin
“The Right-Wing Nonprofit Serving A.I. Slop for America’s Birthday,” by Jessica Winter
“The Media Merger You Should Actually Care About,” by Jon Allsop
“Donald Trump’s Pantomime United Nations,” by Ishaan Tharoor

The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So I just heard from a friend whose family is on their way to spring training down in Sarasota, and they were at the airport, and they bumped into, none other than Joe Biden, who's just flying commercial, just like an ordinary Joe.
0:16.3	I mean, and I'm thinking, wow, what a contrast to the front page of the New York Times with pictures of gold coins with Trump's face on it and Christy Nome's fancy plane that she wants and cash Patel's private jets to Italy on our dime to enjoy the hockey game.
0:34.0	Yeah, I mean, Amtrak of the skies, I guess, yeah.
0:37.8	Right, exactly. But the question is, does he get the economy plus seed?
0:43.4	More peanuts.
0:48.5	Welcome to the political scene from The New Yorker, a weekly discussion about the big questions in American politics.
0:55.0	I'm Susan Glasser and I'm joined by my colleagues Evan Osnos and Jane Mayer. Hi, Evan. Good morning, guys.
1:01.2	Hi, Jane. Hey, there. Great to be with you. Today, we are turning to the Supreme Court. In the coming few months, we are expecting the justices to
1:13.5	hand down more major decisions on everything from birthright citizenship to the president's
1:19.3	power to fire executive officials, to questions that cut to the core of how American democracy
1:25.5	works. With so much at stake, this feels like just the right moment to ask, just where is the Supreme Court headed?
1:33.0	Evan, we're coming out of this tariff decision. What was your reaction to that news and where we are a week later?
1:39.7	Well, it was fascinating to see Trump's reaction to that news. You remember, he found it deeply disappointing.
1:45.6	And then he used this very telling word.
1:47.9	He said, I am ashamed of certain members of the court.
1:50.7	What's fascinating about that is the power dynamic it implies.
1:53.8	He is the father figure he's ashamed of these recalcitrant employees or, you know, people that he put into this position in some ways.
2:03.8	And then, of course, what did he do?
2:04.9	He immediately said he's going to figure out some other loophole by which to reimpose the same tariffs.
2:11.0	What I think is telling, and I want to hear more about this in our conversation today,
2:15.2	is what does that suggest about Trump's growing, let's call it
2:20.0	what it is, defiance of the Supreme Court's authority as a co-equal branch of government. Are we edging
	...

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