The president has no ‘foreign policy’ discretion to impose sweeping global tariffs

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments to scrutinize the tariffs President Trump’s sweeping levied against every nation on earth. Trump invoked emergency powers from an obscure law to justify this move. Those now petitioning the Supreme Court to declare the tariffs unconstitutional have argued that whatever that obscure law says, Congress cannot delegate its exclusive powers — including the power to tax and to regulate foreign commerce — to the president. If that law delegates these powers, it is unconstitutional.

The petitioners have a point: Trump claims that his tariffs are not unconstitutional, because his unique discretion over foreign policy means Congress has not delegated away its powers. But in its attempt to sanction unprecedented authoritarian powers over