An argument used by the Supreme Court to thwart former President Joe Biden’s climate change and student loan forgiveness policies now threatens President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs, Bloomberg reported May 31.
Here are eight things to know about the legal argument:
1. The court’s conservative majority used the concept, known as the “major questions doctrine,” to rule that federal agencies cannot decide sweeping political and economic matters without clear congressional authorization. This line of reasoning was used against the Biden administration to block the Environmental Protection Agency from setting strict limits on power-plant pollution and the Education Department from eliminating student loans for 40 million borrowers.
2. The Supreme Court may employ the doctrine against Mr. Trump’s sweeping tariff plans, which are highly likely to be reviewed by the Supreme Court, according to Bloomberg.
3. The U.S. Court of International Trade cited the Biden-era rulings and the major questions doctrine in a recent 3-0 ruling that many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs exceeded Congressional authorization.
4. The challenged tariffs total an estimated $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
5. The administration claims that the major questions doctrine does not apply when Congress gives authority to the president directly, rather than to an administrative agency as the case was during the Biden era. The government also contends that the doctrine is “inapt” when the subject is national security and foreign affairs, areas where the president has “long been recognized to have broad power,” Bloomberg reported.
6. The Court of International Trade also referenced the nondelegation doctrine, a related conservative-backed legal theory that says lawmakers cannot abrogate their constitutional legislative and taxing powers.
7. The two doctrines together “provide useful tools for the court to interpret statutes so as to avoid constitutional problems,” the trade court said. “These tools indicate that an unlimited delegation of tariff authority would constitute an improper abdication of legislative power to another branch of government.”
8. The ruling is currently on temporary hold while a federal appeals court weighs keeping the tariffs in force as the legal battle proceeds.
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