Bruce Fein on SCOTUS Learning Resources v. Trump

Do not start to run victory laps for the Supreme Court’s check in Learning Resources v. Trump on infinite presidential power by invalidating Trump’s tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, which conspicuously excludes tariff authority and cataloging a range of presidential authorities.

1. The Court did not rebuke or question Trump’s absurd assertions that illegal drugs entering from Canada or China or a chronic trade deficit created national economic emergencies.  Among other things, only a trickle of drugs enter through Canada, and the incidence of illegal drug trafficking has been constant for more than 50 years.  We have also been running trade deficits for decades without evidence of an economic emergency like the Great Depression. Even with Trump tariffs, we had more than a 1.2 trillion deficit in 2025 without a trace of emergency circumstances.
2. Trump predictably answered his SCOTUS defeat (after vile, childish epithets hurled at the Court members) by imposing a 10 percent tariff globally under other statutory national emergency authorities.  Years will elapse and tariffs will be paid before another SCOUTUS ruling.
3. The Court limited its ruling to peacetime tariffs. It invited Trump to declare war on all the world and reimpose the tariffs under wartime powers.  Trump has already absurdly declared Venezuela is invading the United States and drug traffickers are waging war against us that requires lethal military retaliation in self-defense.
4. The Court did nothing to diminish the credible threat that Trump will declare a national emergency under the Insurrection Act and send the military to seize voting machines to cancel the November 2026 congressional elections.
5. The Court did nothing to retreat from its counter-constitutional doctrine that presidential powers over foreign affairs or national security are presumptively limitless and beyond judicial review.
6. In sum, Learning Resources v. Trump is but a speed bump in the road to presidential despotism unless followed by an assertion of congressional constitutional prerogatives fortified by an awakened citizeny to the urgency of separation of powers to secure liberty and justice.

Bruce Fein