- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
Summary: Congress has not delegated (and may not delegate) all power over tariff enactment to the president. It would violate the separation of powers.
The Court of International Trade said the U.S. Constitution gives Congress exclusive authority to regulate commerce with other countries that is not overridden by the president’s emergency powers to safeguard the U.S. economy.
“The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the President’s use of tariffs as leverage,” a three-judge panel said in the decision to issue a permanent injunction on the blanket tariff orders issued by Trump since January. “That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it.”
Basically a bunch of rich dudes with land who knew how to read Greek and Latin and were steeped in the philosophy of the time had stars in their eyes and believed that they could come up with something that would work specifically based on the good will and good faith of all the actors involved. They were very naive about human nature and did not put in any real protections against bad actors.
Eh, it was actually their second attempt. Their first one failed pretty hard (the articles of Confederacy) so they made adjustments. I think they would be shocked that we stuck with their second attempt this long (and through a civil war, no less).
IIRC, in the first attempt the federal government was much weaker overall and the state governments had their own executives and stuff and the whole thing kinda wound up being a bureaucratic nightmare. In their second attempt they thought it might be best to have a reasonably powerful executive.
They were naive in some ways and definitely made mistakes and were racist slavers and genocidal generally speaking, but yeah.