Why the Supreme Court tariff case is such a big deal

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The world is waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of President Trump’s “emergency" tariffs, and Mr. Trump’s weekend tariff spree against European allies underscores again why his abuse of his authority needs to be reined in.

Mr. Trump unleashed a new tariff volley against several European countries (see nearby) to coerce Denmark to sell or cede Greenland to the U.S. He cited no legal authority for doing so.

He simply said he is imposing the tariffs. Though he didn’t say this, presumably he is doing so under what he has claimed is his power in an “emergency" under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. But what emergency? Greenland isn’t under threat of invasion, and Denmark has said the U.S.

can have more or less free run of the island for defense purposes. But Mr. Trump wants ownership of the island on his legacy resume, so he is likely to say that control of Greenland is an emergency even if it isn’t in any normal understanding of the term.

The only observable emergency is the threat to the NATO alliance that Mr. Trump’s demands and tariffs are creating. The episode puts in sharp relief how open-ended Mr.

Trump’s claim of tariff emergency authority is. He can declare an emergency on his own, he can decide which countries and goods he can hit with the border taxes, and at what rate. This means he can use tariffs essentially whenever he wants for whatever reason he wants.

Congress gave him no such expansive power under IEEPA or any other statute. Tariff apologists will say the Greenland tariffs show the uses of border taxes for foreign policy, but the taxing power is Congress’s under the Constitution unless expressly delegated to the President. U.S.