Washington’s abuse of the ’emergency’ label comes to a head

In Washington today, the word “emergency” is a magic key; it unlocks powers Congress never granted, suspends the discipline of regular order and decorates bloated bills with provisions too dubious to pass on their own. What was once meant to be a narrow exception for genuine crises has become a routine pretext for government overreach — a means of inflating executive power and corroding the nation’s fiscal credibility.

Start with the most brazen claim, and one now being scrutinized by the Supreme Court: that a president may impose sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act merely by declaring that a half-century of trade deficits constitutes an emergency.

Tariffs are taxes paid by Americans, and the Constitution assigns the power to tax to Congress. Yet the Tr