In its amicus briefs before the Federal Circuit and D.C. Circuits in the tariff cases, AAF has argued that the key question raised by the President’s assertion of tariff authority is Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution’s clear vesting of taxing power in Congress. That power, which belongs exclusively to Congress, includes the power to set tariff rates.
The President claims that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) gives him the authority to impose any tariffs he deems fit if he finds that there is a national emergency, a determination he tells the courts they are not entitled to review.
If the President’s claims were true, it would mean shifting significant power from Congress to the Executive Branch, something that conservatives have been fighting to prevent and reverse for decades.
The President’s on again-off again tariff policies demonstrate why the Framers of the Constitution wanted the deliberative body of Congress, not the President, to be the ones setting the rules that affected American’s lives and freedom.
These arguments are laid out in more detail in the linked amicus briefs and op eds.
