In just over a year of Trump 2, the president’s flurry of executive orders have been like a tornado shredding the fabric of our democracy. One glaring example is Trump’s global tariffs imposed on April 2, 2025. Despite Congress having power over taxes, tariffs and trade under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Trump unilaterally imposed his tariffs on America and the world under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by declaring that U.S. trade deficits (which have persisted since 1976) constitute an emergency.
Two days ago, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down Trump’s tariffs. This decision is no surprise because his tariffs were clearly unlawful under the language of IEEPA, which requires an emergency and doesn’t authorize tariffs, and the major questions doctrine (presidential action of “vast economic and political significance” must be explicitly granted by law).
Americans have been paying Trump’s illegal tariffs for nearly 11 months, and now our Treasury has a $175 billion refund liability. How did our democracy allow this to happen? Don’t we have checks on the authoritarian ambitions of a man like Trump? Yes, but they’re not working, because Congress has ceded its authority to Trump, courts are too slow to halt illegal orders and SCOTUS has emboldened Trump’s illegality by declaring him above the law. A review of how we got here is in order.
Shortly after April 2, several senators introduced a resolution to terminate the “national emergency” upon which the tariffs were based. The resolution failed because every Republican senator except Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Rand Paul (Kentucky) voted against it. House members initiated similar legislation, but Republican leaders used procedural rules to prevent a vote. By blocking these efforts, Republicans ceded Congress’ constitutional power to Trump.
When Congress failed to act, businesses damaged by Trump’s tariffs sought relief from the courts. On May 28, the U.S. Court of International Trade held the tariffs unlawful and issued an injunction halting them. The next day, the Federal Circuit Appeals Court overturned the CIT injunction. On Aug. 29, the Federal Circuit ruled that the tariffs are illegal, but stayed its decision while Trump appealed. SCOTUS then extended the stay, allowing Trump to collect his tariffs until it ultimately struck them down two days ago.
Rather than allowing legally tenuous tariffs to remain for 11 months, our higher courts should have affirmed CIT’s injunction halting them until SCOTUS ruled. Further, SCOTUS previously held that Trump has immunity for anything he does in his official capacity, essentially ruling that he is above the law, which has emboldened him to break the law with impunity.
In response to SCOTUS’ ruling, Trump announced new 15% tariffs on all imports starting Feb. 24 under a different law, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows presidents to impose temporary tariffs to address a “large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficit.” These new tariffs terminate after 150 days unless Congress extends them. Critics say “balance-of-payments” problems don’t exist today because the world moved to “floating” exchange rates, which ended the type of “currency crises” Section 122 was meant to fix. Lawsuits will come soon, and Trump’s “Plan B” will likely come before SCOTUS before the year is out. In the meantime, Americans will pay Trump’s new tariffs for 150 days unless the courts issue injunctions to stop them or Congress overturns them.
Ironically, Trump’s tariff taxes on Americans are significantly heavier, and implemented with less legislative consent, than the British taxes that sparked the American Revolution. King George III’s taxes in the 1760s and 1770s amounted to a tax cost of 1 shilling per year ($144 in current labor value), with minimal impact on GDP and poverty.
By comparison, Trump’s taxes on imports have averaged 17%, cost American households $2,100 to $3,800 annually, dropped GDP by 0.9% to 1.2%, pushed CPI up 0.5 to 0.7 points, caused bankruptcies to reach a 15-year high, caused huge job losses and sent hundreds of thousands of Americans into poverty. Despite Trump’s false claims that foreign nations pay his tariffs, major economic studies have determined that 90% to 96% of the tariffs are paid by U.S. businesses and consumers. Trump is doing far more economic damage to Americans, without our consent, than King George ever did.
Geoff Craig is a retired lawyer, legal scholar and Catholic theologian. He holds degrees in Economics from Colorado College, and a Juris Doctor from CU Law School.
