The yesterday (Nov. 3rd 2025) hearing of John Sauer counsel for the Trump’s administration, before the Supreme Court, didn’t go well.
The Court debated the Trump administration’s argument : that tariffs are not taxes but rather a means of exerting pressure to rebalance U-S trade and, in the long term, to enable the reindustrialization of the United States. This is why the administration is invoking the 1977 Emergency Economic Act (IEEPA).
Chief Justice John Roberts countered that the imposition of taxes on Americans has always been a fundamental power of Congress. Taxation must be consented to by the American people. This is one of the fundamental principles of American democracy. And only Congress has the legitimacy to create or modify a tax. In fact, this has been the case since December 16, 1773, and the first Boston Tea Party. The historical event that some Trumpetits idiots have twisted into anti-tax populism.
Conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett, appointed by Trump in 2020, asked the administration why the tariff increase was blanket and not targeted. The administration responded that all countries must be taxed because of the threats they all pose to American defense and industry.
This is one of the sensitive points : in the opinion of many economic analysts, the problem today lies with China’s capacity for harm and disruption, which is not playing by the rules of the WHO. Yet, it is China that benefits the most from the US trade war against the rest of the world.
The judges, including the conservative ones, expressed serious reservations about the legality of the administration’s modus operandi. The legality of customs duties appears to be in serious jeopardy.
But it seems also impossible to dismantle the president’s economic policy at this advanced stage, either by demanding tax refunds or by involving Congress in the decision-making process. The Court is faced with a fait accompli from which it will be very difficult to extricate the country.