Striking down the tariffs won’t hurt anybody

Scott Lincicome is vice president of general economics and trade at the Cato Institute.

In both legal filings and in public, President Donald Trump and his team have made fantastical claims about the calamities that would befall the nation should the Supreme Court curtail his authority to implement global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. They allege, in the government’s opening brief for a case that will be argued before the court in November, that an adverse decision would devastate the U.S. economy, the federal government’s fiscal position, and the president’s ability to effectuate trade and foreign policy. The goal, it appears, is to pressure the court into issuing a favorable opinion for prudential and institutional reasons, even if the law demands otherw