Justices grill administration over imposition of steep duties as Sotomayor says: ‘I just don’t understand this argument’

The US supreme court appeared skeptical of the legal basis of the Trump administration’s sweeping global tariff regime on Wednesday after justices questioned the president’s authority to impose the levies.

Justices heard oral arguments on Wednesday morning on the legality of Donald Trump’s tariffs , a crucial legal test of his controversial economic strategy – and power.

Even conservative justices sounded doubtful of the strength of the Trump administration’s position. “The vehicle is the imposition of taxes on Americans, and that has always been a core power of Congress,” said Chief Justice John Roberts.

    • manxu@piefed.social
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      6 hours ago

      That’s what I was speculating. Clearly, SCOTUS can see that the tariffs are hurting America and especially Americans, so this is a backdoor way of taking the ball from Trump for his own good.

      That, or they are sick of having to pay more for their morning coffee because Trump wants a better deal for his buddy Bolsonaro.

      • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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        6 hours ago

        In that case the 5D move for the lib side of SCOTUS would be to vote for keeping his emergency tariff powers. 😆