Supreme Court conservatives air their grievances in tariffs dissent
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The Supreme Court’s decision to block President Donald Trump’s tariffs is a hefty 170 pages long—but only a dozen or so pages constitute the actual opinion of the court, thanks to a fractured majority opinion. Huge chunks of this monstrosity areSupreme Court conservatives air their grievances in tariffs dissent
The Supreme Court’s decision to block President Donald Trump’s tariffs is a hefty 170 pages long—but only a dozen or so pages constitute the actual opinion of the court, thanks to a fractured majority opinion. Huge chunks of this monstrosity are mostly just the conservative justices hammering away at their colleagues. It’s just grievances all the way down. The less said about Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s 62-page (!!) dissent, the better. You can tell that he’s the sort of guy who thinks his every thought is perfectly formed and divinely inspired, which is why his dissenting opinion is longer than anything else in the decision. Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in as a Supreme Court justice during President Donald Trump’s first term in 2018. But Kavanaugh didn’t even need all of those words. His real job is to just flatter Trump and make sure he gets his way. Since he couldn’t land a majority opinion in this case, he used his dissent to draw Trump a roadmap on how to just keep on tariffin’ even after this ruling. Honestly, you probably could have done that in, like, five pages, Brett. Somehow, even though Justice Neil Gorsuch was in the majority, his concurrence is pure whine and snarl, lashing out at everyone for not being as amazing and smart as he is. For 46 pages. So when it comes to the major questions doctrine, everyone on the Supreme Court except Gorsuch is doing it wrong, you fools. And when it comes to Congress? Well, everyone is also stupid and bad because they won’t understand that legislating is hard and takes time, and they should get off their butts. It’s some awfully weird sentiment coming from a dude who’s spent the last year by and large joining his conservative colleagues in ignoring the executive branch's unconstitutional encroachment on Congress’ powers. Sure, we’ve told you multiple times that what you do doesn’t matter, and we will let Trump do what he wants, but how dare you not legislate anyway! Gorsuch didn’t spare Justice Clarence Thomas, framing his view as “Congress may hand over to the President most of its powers, including the tariff power, without limit." Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017 Surprisingly, Gorsuch is not wrong here. Thomas did exactly that. His dissent tried to punch an enormous hole in the nondelegation doctrine, one big enough to drive a Trump-shaped tariff through, and it was so out of pocket that even the reliably craven Justice Samuel Alito didn’t join it. Broadly, the nondelegation doctrine says that Congress can’t delegate its power to legislate. It delegates other power all of the time, such as giving government agencies authority to develop regulations. But turning over legislative power is a no-no. But wait! What if Thomas could just decide, single-handedly, that the nondelegation doctrine bars Congress only from delegating legislative power related to deprivation of life, liberty, or property? That would basically allow Congress to give away much of its constitutional power to legislate, allowing Trump full tariff power. That’s horrifying, ahistorical, and too weird even for Alito. But, hey, at least Thomas kept it to 18 pages. Small blessings. Read more
