Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, left, and former Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist. Reuters

Most judges who have considered President Donald Trump’s disputed tariffs have ruled against him. But when the Supreme Court hears his appeal next week, it may be influenced by a forceful dissenting opinion that highlighted a 1981 case from the Iranian hostage crisis.

Chief Justice John Roberts knows that case well. He helped produce it, as a 26-year-old law clerk to then-Justice William Rehnquist.

Rehnquist wrote the opinion in Dames & Moore v. Regan during a hectic week that June – a “mad scramble,” Rehnquist told his fellow justices in a memo. He caught viral pneumonia in the middle of writing the opinion. Roberts himself was in the last frantic days o

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