From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had arguments in the biggest case of its term,

about whether the president has the authority to impose the highest tariffs the country

has seen in a century.

Today, my colleague Adam Liptack explains why the court seemed like it might be willing to say no

to this president.

It's Thursday, November 6th.

Hi, Adam.

Hello, Rachel.

Thanks for being with us today.

It was obviously a very busy day for the Supreme Court, which was taking up one of Trump's signature policies, tariffs.

Just to start, can you walk us through what was at stake in this case? So this is easily the most closely watched case of the term. It involves President Trump's

central signature initiative tariffs. And it's also the court's biggest confrontation yet with the scope of

executive power in the second Trump administration. And the question in the case was huge. It was

whether or not Congress has authorized President Trump to pursue tariffs, which are his main lever in international

relations, and he says, protecting the nation's security.

And just to be really clear, Adam, why would the president not have the authority to impose tariffs?

Article 1 of the Constitution, which lays out Congress's powers,

is quite clear that the power to tax and tariffs are a form of taxation and the power to

regulate international commerce is for Congress. And Congress can let the President have part of its authority, but this is a

situation in which the Constitution is quite clear that Congress needs to authorize this kind of

activity, that this is not something the president can do without that authorization.

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