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What's at stake as Supreme Court takes up case of Trump's tariffs · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: And the Supreme Court is hearing arguments today on the
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  Speaker 1: legality of President Trump's tariffs. The Constitution gives Congress the
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  Speaker 1: effusive authority to tax citizens and imports, but it has
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  Speaker 1: exceptions giving the president that power during times of national crisis. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the Supreme Court will need to decide if that exception
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  Speaker 1: applies here. If the Court strikes down Trump's tariffs, the
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  Speaker 1: US could owe businesses tens of billions of dollars in refunds.
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  Speaker 1: Abcus Senior Washington reporter Devin Dwyer has the details.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Devin, The justices today are hearing historic arguments over
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  Speaker 2: whether President Trump's sweeping global tariffs, the centerpiece of his
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  Speaker 2: economic agenda, are illegal. The Constitution gives Congress the power
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  Speaker 2: to tax and tariff, but the president argues a nineteen
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  Speaker 2: seventy seven law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers
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  Speaker 2: Act delegates some of that power to him. Trump says
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  Speaker 2: that persistent trade deficits and inflows of illegal drugs are
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  Speaker 2: two major emergency that he's addressing with tariffs, but a
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  Speaker 2: group of states and small businesses sued, saying the President
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  Speaker 2: has exceeded his legal authority, that the tariffs are an
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  Speaker 2: illegal tax and that billions of dollars of refunds are owed.
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  Speaker 2: Lower courts agreed with the businesses. Legal experts say the
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  Speaker 2: fate of Trump's tariffs at the Supreme Court is a
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  Speaker 2: toss up.
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  Speaker 1: Devin Dwyer, thank you, and ABC's legal contributor Kim whalies
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  Speaker 1: here to break this case down a little bit further forward.
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  Speaker 1: So can what do the justices have to weigh here
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  Speaker 1: in deciding whether these tariffs are legal or not?
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  Speaker 3: So, as Devin said, this is the power that the
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  Speaker 3: Constitution gives to Congress, and then Congress in statutes, not
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  Speaker 3: just this emergency statute. Other statutes has given power to
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  Speaker 3: presidents to negotiate tariffs. The one that Donald Trump is
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  Speaker 3: using for these really sweeping global tariffs doesn't have any
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  Speaker 3: language in it that actually gives him the power to
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  Speaker 3: issue tariffs. Talks about regulating imports. So the Court's going
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  Speaker 3: to have to decide does regulating imports mean tariffs? And
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  Speaker 3: there's something that has been floating the past few years
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  Speaker 3: called the major questions doctrine. And the Court was really
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  Speaker 3: hard on Joe Biden using the major questions doctrine when
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  Speaker 3: it came to COVID. When it came to student loans.
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  Speaker 3: They essentially said, listen, you can't kind of find an
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  Speaker 3: elephant in a mousehole. That Congress has to be really
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  Speaker 3: clear if you're going to expand presidential power. So in
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  Speaker 3: light of that major questions doctrine, this conservative court really
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  Speaker 3: should side with the challengers and say, listen, Congress has
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  Speaker 3: to decide how much more power Trump gets. But we've
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  Speaker 3: seen so many wins for Donald Trump on the shadow docket, Diane,
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  Speaker 3: I think it's really going to be a question of
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  Speaker 3: not just the power of Donald Trump, the power of
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  Speaker 3: the Congress to control tariffs, but whether the court's own
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  Speaker 3: legitimacy is going to hold out. I in this instance,
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  Speaker 3: it uses what it was a weapon against Joe Biden's
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  Speaker 3: policies to allow a major expansion of the president's authority
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  Speaker 3: under a statute that's pretty ambiguous with respect to this
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  Speaker 3: kind of power to impost heraps.
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  Speaker 1: President Trump also issued executive orders declaring an emergency over
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  Speaker 1: illegal immigration and drug trafficking. How much can this case
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  Speaker 1: impact some others that we're dealing with and waiting into
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  Speaker 1: just this issue of what meets the bar of a
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  Speaker 1: national crisis.
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  Speaker 3: That's really an excellent question, Diane, because the other argument
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  Speaker 3: here is that fentanyl isn't particularly with respect to Canada,
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  Speaker 3: it's not an emergency. There's not that much ventanyl that
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  Speaker 3: comes from Canada relatively speaking, this idea that our trade
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  Speaker 3: deficit is an emergency. Some economists will say, actually, that's
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  Speaker 3: a healthy aspect of our in certain context of a
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  Speaker 3: government's economy. And as you mentioned, the president is using
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  Speaker 3: emergency emergency emergency to expand the belt and suspenders of
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  Speaker 3: the presidency. So sure, if we get out of this decision,
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  Speaker 3: some definition of when is and is not something an emergency,
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  Speaker 3: And more particularly is the president is his discretion to
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  Speaker 3: declare an emergency unlimited? That is it is there any
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  Speaker 3: other part of the government that can second guess his
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  Speaker 3: assertion of a emergency. If the answer to that question
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  Speaker 3: is no, then you're really seeing again a massive expansion
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  Speaker 3: of unlimited, unaccountable part of power in one person, which
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  Speaker 3: happens to just be Donald Trump today, but could be
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  Speaker 3: you know, any future president. If the Supreme Court sides
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  Speaker 3: with Donald Trump in this particular case, it's a big
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  Speaker 3: case more broadly for the scope of presidential power.
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  Speaker 1: All Right, Kim Way, always great to have you breaking
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  Speaker 1: these down for us.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you,