On Friday, hours after the Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump had no tariff authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), he invoked a different law to impose "a temporary import surcharge of 10 percent," later raised to 15 percent. Trump suggested he also might impose tariffs under four other statutes, some of which he has used before.
Despite that seemingly quick recovery from a decision that Trump called "terrible" and "deeply disappointing," the IEEPA ruling undeniably complicated his economically illiterate trade war. More importantly, it upheld the rule of law and the separation of powers by rejecting Trump's audacious claim that the 1977 law, which does not even mention import taxes and had never before been used to impose them, gave him the previously unnoticed authority to completely rewrite the tariff schedule approved by Congress.
