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Why the Supreme Court ruling on tariffs is good news · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Greetings and welcome to Dinnison Forum's daily article podcast for Monday, February 23, 2026.
• 0:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Chris Elkins, narrating today's daily article, authored by Cultural Theologian and Pastor Dr. Jim Dinnison.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: any of these stories could be the focus of today's daily article.
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: The winner Olympics concluded yesterday with Norway winning 41 medals and the US in second place with 33.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: The US men's hockey team won the gold medal in over time.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's first since the miracle on ice, 46 years earlier.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: A historic winner storm has placed 59 million people in the
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: At least 14 people were killed yesterday, including seven national guard troops, as violence erupted across Mexico after the Army killed the country's most wanted drug lord.
• 0:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: With US forces in place across the Middle East, President Trump is said to be considering his options for Iran.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Authorities in Arizona are continuing their search for Nancy Guthrie more than three weeks after she disappeared.
• 1:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: But today, I'm focusing on Friday Supreme Court decision striking down President Trump's global tariffs.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I consider it an even more foundational story, though not for reasons you might think.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: As you know, I lead a non-profit ministry committed to neutrality with regard to partisan politics.
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: It made therefore surprise you that I'm writing this morning to claim that the court's decision is good news for every American.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: The reason I can do so and remain missional is that my assertion has nothing to do with partisan politics or tariffs and everything to do with our national and cultural future.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Radicalism of the American Revolution,
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: historian Gordon Wood writes that our revolution quote did not just eliminate monarchy and create republics.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: It actually reconstituted what Americans meant by public or state power and brought about an entirely new kind of popular politics and a new kind of democratic officeholder in quote.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: As political scholar, you've all leavened his written, the Constitution establishes a politics in which no one is in charge and, therefore, in some sense, everyone is in charge, in quotes.
• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: We tend to focus on the founders' positive view of humanity that counters centuries of European monarchial thinking with all men are created equal.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: In such a world view, anyone can be elected president, sit on the Supreme Court, or serve in Congress.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the founders also understood the negative side of humanity.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: In federalist number 51, James Madison wrote, if men were angels, no government would be necessary.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: You must first enable the government to control the government and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Accordingly, Madison and other framers of our Constitution created checks and balances to ensure no individual or group would possess an accountable power.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: In our system, the Supreme Court can overturn the actions of the President.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: The President can veto laws made by Congress and Congress can overturn court decisions through legislation.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: For example, the horrific Supreme Court dreads Scott decision of 1857 versus the Civil
• 3:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Laws can replace laws as can constitutional amendments.
• 3:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Presidents and members of Congress can be replaced by voters and they and justices can be impeached.
• 3:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: This system is intended to prevail even in the face of partisan pressure.
• 3:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: For example, in his response to Friday's ruling, President Trump said he was absolutely ashamed of some of the justices who ruled 6-3 against him.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: In a post on X, Vice President J.D.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Vance similarly called the High Court decision lawlessness.
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Wall Street Journal headline at the ruling quote, RIPS open Trump's relationship with the Robert's Court.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: The president, especially singled out, justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, whom he nominated in his first term as a disgrace to our nation.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he is abiding by the ruling and adopting other means of imposing tariffs.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: This outcome shows that our democratic republic continues to function 250 years after it was created.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is a foundational fact for which all Americans should be grateful.
• 4:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, a government of laws, not of men, as John Adams famously described our system, can only take us so far.
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Legality is a poor substitute for morality.
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: In our system, we can do whatever we want, so long as we're not caught doing it.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Much that is immoral and damaging to our lives in culture is nonetheless legal from abortion and use in Asia to adultery, pornography, and same-sex marriage.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: The only path to our best lives is one that changes not just what we do, but the essence of who we are.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is an offer made by
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: No legal system, world view or religion except Christianity.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Only Jesus says we can be born again in John 3 verse 3.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Only He can make us a new creation noted in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Only He can change our hearts.
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our culture does not understand this.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know it for many years before I became a Christian, and to my point today, I overlooked it for many years after I did.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I thought Christianity was a system of morality, by which I could please God and receive His blessing in return.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: reading the Bible, praying, attending church, sharing my faith, and so on, where the expected ways for Christians to behave.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I believe the credo, what you are is God's gift to you, what you make of yourself is your gift to God.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: but what I could make of myself was not enough.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Somehow, in my soul, I knew there was more than this.
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: My god-shaped emptiness was not yet filled.
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: To site St. Augustine, my heart was still restless because it had not yet come to rest in him.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was a spiritual formation course in seminary, where I first became acquainted with the idea that God Spirit could make me like God's son, that if I would surrender my life to him every day, he would then transform me in ways I could neither imagine nor produce.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is what famed missionary Jay Hudson Taylor called the Exchange Life.
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: In they found the secret 20 transformed lives that reveal a touch of eternity.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: The late Wheaton College President, V. Raymond Edmund wrote,
• 7:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is rejoicing for weariness and radiance for drearyness.
• 7:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is strength for weakness and steadiness for uncertainty.
• 7:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is triumph even through tears and tinderness of heart instead of touchiness.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is loneliness of spirit instead of self-exultation and loveliness of life because of the presence of the altogether lovely one in quote.
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Would you like to make such an exchange today?