The Senate will try again this week to rein in President Donald Trump\u2019s tariff regime \u2014 even as some of its Republicans quietly hope for the justices across the street to squash it.<\/p>\n
If the Supreme Court doesn\u2019t check Trump on tariffs, \u201cCongress doesn\u2019t have a role in determining what constitutes an emergency. This president, and future presidents, will take it upon himself to creatively define and redefine that,\u201d one Republican senator told Semafor.<\/p>\n
The GOP senator added: \u201cThis should be Congress\u2019 call if you\u2019re increasing taxes on the American people through tariff policy. We are the ones who dictate tax policy. This is a form of taxation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The high court will hear arguments next week in a case that challenges Trump\u2019s ability to use national emergencies to impose tariffs. The president has already fretted in public about the difficulty his administration would face if the conservative justices rein him in, warning that \u201cwe will be a weakened, troubled financial mess for many, many years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump is much more assured of surviving this week\u2019s Senate votes, which disapprove of his tariffs on Brazil and Canada plus his global levies, but the whiplash of his trade agenda is clearly wearing on GOP senators. A Supreme Court ruling against the tariffs would have the benefit of defusing what could soon become a brutal internecine fight for Republicans.<\/p>\n
The latest schism stems from 10 percent tariffs that Trump slapped on Canada in retaliation against the Ontario premier, who ran an ad showing former President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs. Those new Canada tariffs jolted free-trade Republicans, prompting Democrats to force a series of tariff votes.<\/p>\n
In theory, Congress could stop Trump\u2019s tariffs through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act \u2014 but that requires veto-proof majorities. And House Republican leaders changed their rules to prevent such a vote in the lower chamber.<\/p>\n
Which leaves the Supreme Court as the only practical way to unravel Trump\u2019s plans in the eyes of pro-trade Republicans and Democrats who say the tariffs are hampering the economy and raising prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not think that you can invoke this law that the president is relying on,\u201d said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. \u201cTo me, the constitutional authority is pretty clear in vesting in Congress. But that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it will come out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n