The Latest: Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Trump’s tariffs

WASHINGTON AP The U S Supreme Court is hearing arguments Wednesday over President Donald Trump s sweeping tariffs putting a tool at the center of his economic and foreign strategy agendas squarely before the high court The episode involves the tariffs first informed in April on almost all U S trading partners and the ones from February on imports from Canada China and Mexico Trump justified these by declaring separate national emergencies under the International Exigency Economic Powers Act Earlier this year however two lower courts and a federal appeals court ruled that the crisis law he invoked doesn t give him unlimited power to set tariffs The Constitution says tariff power belongs to Congress Now arguments on whether the president s tariffs overstep federal law arrive before a conservative-led Supreme Court which has thus far been reluctant to check to Trump s wide-ranging use of executive powers Here s the latest What if tariffs have to be refunded Under questioning Katyal conceded it would be hard to refund money to importers if the court strikes down Trump s tariffs So far the Treasury has collected nearly billion from the import taxes the president has imposed under an urgency powers law We don t deny that it s intricate Katyal revealed But there s a precedent for companies getting their money back In the s the courts struck down as unconstitutional a harbor maintenance fee on exports and set up a system for exporters to apply to get their money back At the two-hour mark with the Oregon solicitor general still to come Thoughts about lunch could be mixing with the justices questions about tariffs as the arguments stretch into the afternoon Oregon s lawyer is arguing on behalf of a dozen states that also sued over the tariffs Justice Kavanaugh points to a tariff that was upheld by the Supreme Court The court unanimously ruled for President Gerald Ford in a episode about the imposition of tariffs on oil imports based on a different statute that also doesn t mention the word tariffs The court - rejected the argument that the absence of the word tariff doomed Ford s action Kavanaugh commented The limits of tariffs as foreign approach Thomas appealed if the president could use tariffs as leverage to pressure a foreign governing body perhaps China to return an American taken hostage No Katyal revealed Tariffs are different because they re revenue raising And Congress has the power to impose taxes including tariffs unless it explicitly delegates that power to the president A moment of levity Nondelegation is an argument that s dear to conservatives and on Wednesday it was being made by a onetime Democratic appointee Alito gently ribbed Katyal who served in the Obama administration about embracing the nondelegation doctrine last used years ago over tariffs Mr Katyal I wonder if you ever thought your legacy as a constitutional advocate would be as the man who revived the nondelegation argument Alito stated drawing a chuckle from the courtroom Heck yes the lawyer replied The president has other powers to tax imports Katyal says The challengers lawyer argued that the president has other authority to impose tariffs without relying on a national crisis For example he cited Section of the Business Act of which allows the president to combat deal deficits by imposing tariffs of up to for up to days without congressional approval Urgency law didn t give the president tariff power Katyal says Congress knows exactly how to delegate its tariff powers Katyal commented noting that several statutes explicitly give the president power to tax imports but only within limits IEEPA looks nothing like those laws he explained Roberts is now poking at the challengers arguments The chief justice invokes the president s broad authority over foreign affairs and alluding to deals struck by Trump He notes that the tariffs were quite effective in achieving objectives The lawyer representing companies challenging the tariffs is up Attorney Neal Katyal in response to a question from Thomas distinguishes between embargos allowed by the law and tariffs which he says are not Embargos stop the shipment tariffs start the tax bill Katyal reported He was solicitor general in the Obama administration on an acting basis Legal observers weigh in on the arguments so far One key takeaway is the concern that Congress can t pull back the authority because it would require a veto-proof supermajority reported Ryan Majerus a partner at the law firm King Spalding who was a bargain official in the first Trump administration and the Biden administration He also explained Gorsuch and Barrett seem to be the swing votes Stratos Pahis who teaches pact law at the Brooklyn Law School agreed Lots of skepticism so far from Justices Roberts Gorsuch and Barrett It s nearly halftime You can t predict the final result when the event is only half over but so far Roberts Barrett and Gorsuch have posed questions suggesting that they may not accept the administration s arguments in favor of the tariffs The three liberal justices also seem skeptical of the tariffs But again we haven t heard from the other side yet Justices ask where the law gives Trump the power to tariff Getting to a key question in the development Justice Brett Kavanaugh appealed why the president s power under IEEPA to regulate imports included the power to impose tariffs when the law does not even mention tariffs Sauer responded that tariffs are the natural and in countless means the quintessential way to regulate imports Justice Gorsuch worries about giving limitless power to presidents Gorsuch a Trump appointee has questions about both major questions and nondelegation He is asking Sauer to provide limits on the broadest reading of the administration s arguments in favor of tariffs Sauer agreed that another very different president would have the authority to declare conditions change an crisis and impose tariffs to deal with it What is nondelegation Congress can delegate specific of its powers to the executive branch but there are limits Various of the conservative justices want to reinvigorate a legal doctrine that was last used in Justice Neil Gorsuch voted in dissent in June to strike down a universal operation fee on phone bills as an unconstitutional delegation of congressional power The challenges hope to attract his vote on tariffs on the same basis Gorsuch has mostly worried about Congress giving away too much of its power to federal agencies It s unclear whether he ll have the same reservation with the president involved What is IEEPA The acronym IEEPA stands for the International Urgency Economic Powers Act which is the law at the center of the development Presidents have used it dozens of times over the years often to impose sanctions on other countries Trump is the first president to use it to impose tariffs The challengers say that s unconstitutional What is the major questions doctrine Conservative majorities blocked President Joe Biden s billion candidate loan forgiveness plan and other of his administration s initiatives by ruling that Congress must speak clearly on questions of vast economic and political significance The court ruled that the statutes relied upon in those cases did not clearly give the administration the power to act Roberts says major questions might directly apply to this matter The chief justice sounds skeptical that Trump can use the exigency powers law for tariffs Roberts noted it has never been used before to justify tariffs However he may be asking about this as a way to let the Trump administration s lawyer offer a more expansive explanation The tariffs would be in trouble if they don t have Roberts vote Does regulate tariff Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is drilling down to a key question in the situation Does the word regulate allow tariffs The Trump administration argues that it does and that s why they say he can impose and change tariffs during national emergencies Barrett grilled him on that point questioning whether regulate has frequently been used to allow for tariffs Barrett is a conservative who s gone her own way on chosen cases and her vote will be key in the affair Trump s lawyer says tariffs main purpose is to regulate commerce not raise revenue Sauer provoked an objection from Justice Sonia Sotomayor after arguing that Trump s tariffs were not designed to raise revenue for the federal leadership Trump has repeatedly boasted about how much money his import taxes are brining into the Treasury You want to say tariffs are not taxes but they are Sotomayor mentioned Roberts questions Sauer Chief Justice John Roberts jumped in fairly promptly questioning Sauer about whether he s relying too much on an older decision on a different part of the emergency-powers law at the center of the incident The chief justice is inevitably a key person to watch but his take will be especially significant in this situation Roberts was a law clerk at the time to the justice who wrote the opinion William Rehnquist Thomas first asks about major questions Conservative majorities blocked President Joe Biden s billion attendee loan forgiveness plan and other of his administration s initiatives by ruling that Congress must speak clearly on questions of vast economic and political significance It s not clear whether the justices will apply the same principle in the tariffs matter but lower courts did Sauer says it doesn t apply to foreign affairs issues Settle in for a lengthy session It should be a hot bench with every justice posing multiple questions on an issue of extreme importance The court has allotted minutes for arguments but they will almost certainly extend well into early afternoon Since returning to the courtroom following the COVID- pandemic the justices have routinely gone beyond the time set aside for arguments The Justice Department will argue first Arguments are getting underway First up is Solicitor General D John Sauer Trump s top Supreme Court lawyer arguing for the Trump administration Trump won t be at the Supreme Court Trump has been vocal about the scenario and suggested at one point he might go to the arguments himself something no other sitting president is recorded to have done He stated Sunday he decided against it but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to attend It s not about me it s about our country Trump recounted reporters Sunday The justices could act more rapidly than usual in issuing a decision The court only agreed to hear the circumstance in September scheduling arguments less than two months later The quick turnaround at least by Supreme Court standards suggests that the court will try to act fast High-profile cases can take half a year or more to resolve often because the majority and dissenting opinions go through rounds of revision But the court can act promptly when deadline pressure dictates Majority of in recent days the court ruled a week after hearing arguments in the TikTok situation Tariff critics cross the political spectrum The challengers aren t the only ones urging the Supreme Court to rule against the tariffs Conservative-leaning groups like Cato Institute the Chamber of Commerce and the Goldwater Institute have filed legal briefs urging the court to uphold the rulings against them Former national safeguard officers federal judges and economists also weighed in against them as have hundreds of small businesses The tariffs have ascertained several promotion in the docket from groups like the Trump-aligned America First Approach Institute Three lawyers will present arguments to the court Solicitor General D John Sauer Trump s top Supreme Court lawyer is defending the tariffs Neal Katyal who held Sauer s job on an acting basis in the Obama administration represents small businesses that are challenging the tariffs Oregon Solicitor General Benjamin Gutman is appearing on behalf of mostly Democratic-led states that also sued over the tariffs Little visible benefits so far from tariffs Trump has warned that a decision by the Supreme Court to overturn his tariffs poses a nearly existential threat to the nation s economic increase But so far there is little evidence that the duties have benefited the business sector Pedestrians walk by a Now Hiring sign at an electronics store in Dallas Thursday Aug AP Photo LM Otero Manufacturers have cut jobs every month since Trump s Liberation Day tariff announcement in April And a survey of manufacturers issued Monday uncovered that U S factory activity contracted in October for the eighth straight month A multitude of respondents to the survey complained that tariffs have disrupted their business Trump s policies take tariffs to s levels Since returning to the White House in January Trump has reversed decades of U S approach that favored free exchange and low taxes on imports The average U S tariff rate has risen to highest since from around at the beginning of the year according to Yale University s Budget Lab If the Supreme Court strikes down the tariffs Trump justified by declaring economic emergencies the average tariff rate would drop to the lab broadcasted Trump s tariffs make money for the Treasury Tariff revenue came to billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept up from billion in fiscal The import taxes he justified under an economic crisis law the ones being challenged in the Supreme Court brought in billion Still total tariffs accounted for less than of federal revenue of trillion in fiscal Tariffs in foreign agenda For Trump tariffs are not just a key part of his economic agenda they re also a cornerstone of his foreign agenda He has wielded the import taxes as a threat to secure ceasefires as political pressure during the prosecution of a Trump ally and as punishment for a television ad In fact the Justice Department has pointed to their prominence in foreign agenda as one reason why the Supreme Court should not strike them down since it s an area where courts have long given deference to the executive branch The challengers on the other hand say that tariffs amount to a domestic tax because they re paid by American companies that import goods and taxation belongs to Congress US business deficits are nothing new Trump justified his sweeping tariffs on majority U S trading partners by declaring that the country s pact deficit amounted to a national emergency But the U S has been importing more than it exports for five decades It hasn t run a agreement surplus since There is beefed-up shield around the court Streets around the building are closed as has in recent days been the event on days the court is in session With Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and members of Congress expected for the arguments protection is even tighter than usual What happens if the Supreme Court rules against Trump The president has warned the United States will be rendered defenseless if he loses But he d authentically still have plenty of options to keep taxing imports aggressively He can use other laws he deployed in his first term and can reach for more including one aimed specifically at addressing agreement imbalances and a previously unused Depression-era statute that allows for up to tariffs against countries that treat American businesses unfairly He just won t have nearly boundless authority to impose any tariff he wants anytime he wants to Livestream should begin a sparse minutes after a m Eastern time A buzzer and the court marshal s cry All rise will signal the start of the session the justices emerging from behind red curtains to take their seats at the court s curved mahogany bench The livestream won t kick in for several minutes until after the ceremonial swearing-in of lawyers to the Supreme Court bar Source