I know you didn't expect to see me today, but the Supreme Court just ruled that most of Trump's tariffs are illegal

and a six to three decision saying that the Constitution gives Congress the power to impose taxes, not the president. And this is Trump's already collected $133 billion from these illegal tariffs. Democrats are demanding refunds and Trump is melting down, calling it a disgrace, and he's already moving to get around the decision. For all of this to make sense, you need to understand that a key thing is that this ruling applied

specifically to tariffs that were put into place under something called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. That's a law that was passed back in 1977, giving the president brought economic powers to, quote, deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the country. It's a law that's been invoked dozens of times by various presidents to impose sanctions, block transactions, freeze assets, and restrict imports or exports. But really until Trump, nobody had invoked the law to implement tariffs. One, because the law makes absolutely zero mention of that being a thing that you can do, and two, because the Constitution very clearly gives Congress the power to impose taxes, not the president.

So there's that, and then as far as tariffs, those are just taxes imposed on imported goods.

They're paid by whoever is bringing the goods in. Though actually, an expert saying that the cost is often passed on the consumer, though, that is also a concept that Trump has really found difficult to grasp. Instead, insisting, you know, this is just going to be great for the country when he first invoked the law to put tariffs in place on goods from China, Canada, and Mexico, with the emergency having to do with a legal immigration and drug trafficking. And then he did it again in April when he put in place the so-called reciprocal tariffs on imports from nearly every country on Earth. And the apparent emergency this time was the country's large and persistent trade deficits, and tariffs that each country got hit with were based on the size of those deficits. And also, since a trade deficit isn't inherently a bad thing, you had many experts arguing that the policy in general just made no economic sense. And so the opposition to this came not only from the Democrats, but also libertarian and pro-business groups typically aligned with the Republican Party. In fact, polling it showed that tariffs weren't broadly popular with the general public. And then actually, data came out just this week suggesting that they haven't been effective at their stated purpose, with the country's overall trade deficit reaching a record high in 2025. With all that said, right, these tariffs, they weren't struck down because their bad policy. They were struck down today because they're just illegal. Or you had a six to three majority reaffirming the Constitution very clearly gives Congress the power to impose taxes, including tariffs. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the Framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the executive branch. The government reads, IEEPA, to give the President power to unilaterally impose unbounded tariffs and change them at will. That view would represent a transformative expansion of the President's authority over tariff policy. And truly, this is very big news. This is the first time that this Supreme Court has definitively struck down one of Trump's second-term policies. But then, of course, with this, we've got to talk about the dissenting side. This wasn't a unanimous decision. On the dissenting side, you had Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh. With Cabinow, arguing in his dissent, the tariffs at issue here may or may not be wise policy, but as a matter of text, history, and precedent, they are clearly lawful.

He also took issue with the fact that the arguing in his dissent, the tariffs at issue here may or may not be wise policy, but as a matter of

text, history, and precedent, they are clearly lawful. He also took issue with the fact that the majority didn't address whether companies could get refunded for the tariffs, he paid already. While it's higher now, as a December, the Treasury had collected over $133 billion from tariffs imposed under the Emergency Powers law. With Kavanaugh writing, the court says nothing today about whether and if so how the government should go about returning the billions of dollars that

has collected from importers. But then also acknowledging that process is likely to be a mess as was acknowledged at oral argument. The one of the most vocal anti-tariff organizations in the United States, We Pay the Tariffs has already launched a national sign-on letter calling for full, fast, and automatic refunds. With the group's director saying, today's Supreme Court decision is a tremendous victory

for America's small businesses who have been bearing the crushing weight of these tariffs,

but then adding, a legal victory is meaningless without actual relief for the businesses that paid

these tariffs. The administration's only responsible course of action now is to establish a fast,

efficient, and automatic refund process that returns tariff money to the businesses that paid it.

You also had Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren extending a similar argument to the American people writing on Twitter.

No Supreme Court decision can undo the massive damage that Trump's chaotic tariffs have caused.

The American people paid for these tariffs and the American people should get their money back.

And then on top of that, you had California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose state actually sued the federal government over the tariffs explicitly calling on Trump to issue tariff refund checks to Americans. Saying time to pay the piper, Donald, these tariffs were nothing more than an illegal cash grab that drove up prices and hurt working families so you could wreck longstanding alliances and extort them. Every dollar unlawfully taken must be refunded immediately with interest. Cough up. But also again, right, it's not just the Democrats who are welcoming the Supreme Court's decision here. You had Don Bacon, for example, one of the six House Republicans who recently voted to undo some of Trump's tariffs on Canada saying, the Constitution's checks and balances still works. This was a common sense and straightforward ruling by the Supreme Court and adding, in the future, Congress should defend its authorities and not just rely on Supreme Court. With then also Senator Rand Paul arguing if the court's decision makes plain, what should have been obvious, and also arguing that it would prevent Democrats from abusing the emergency powers law in the future writing. This ruling will also prevent a future president such as AOC from using emergency powers to enact socialism. Which also really quick, Rand, that counts as an endorsement, no take back season. Right, but also, Rand Paul and Bacon, they're kind of in the minority on the Republican side. And for those Republicans who just really can't get the love and the taste of the boot out of their mouth, the reaction has been different. Senator Bernie Moreno, for example, described the decision as a betrayal and called on his fellow party members to get to work immediately on a reconciliation bill to codify the tariffs that have made our country the hottest country on earth. And as far as Trump, he is taking this especially personally. But he previously called the case one of the most important in U.S. history. He also warned that a decision against him would be a, quote, economic and national security disaster with catastrophic consequences and even

claiming it would literally destroy the United States of America. And today when he

first heard the news, he reportedly blasted the court's decision as a disgrace. And

then he later held a press conference to just absolutely bash the judges who ruled

against him. And that includes the two that he appointed. I'm ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do

what's right for our country. The Democrats on the court are thrilled, but they will automatically

vote no. They're an automatic no, just like in Congress. They're an automatic no.

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