As Trump’s tariffs vex Republicans, some hope for a Supreme Court rescue

The Senate will try again this week to rein in President Donald Trump’s tariff regime — even as some of its Republicans quietly hope for the justices across the street to squash it.

If the Supreme Court doesn’t check Trump on tariffs, “Congress doesn’t have a role in determining what constitutes an emergency. This president, and future presidents, will take it upon himself to creatively define and redefine that,” one Republican senator told Semafor.

The GOP senator added: “This should be Congress’ call if you’re increasing taxes on the American people through tariff policy. We are the ones who dictate tax policy. This is a form of taxation.”

The high court will hear arguments next week in a case that challenges Trump’s ability to use national emergencies to impose tariffs. The president has already fretted in public about the difficulty his administration would face if the conservative justices rein him in, warning that “we will be a weakened, troubled financial mess for many, many years to come.”

Trump is much more assured of surviving this week’s Senate votes, which disapprove of his tariffs on Brazil and Canada plus his global levies, but the whiplash of his trade agenda is clearly wearing on GOP senators. A Supreme Court ruling against the tariffs would have the benefit of defusing what could soon become a brutal internecine fight for Republicans.

The latest schism stems from 10 percent tariffs that Trump slapped on Canada in retaliation against the Ontario premier, who ran an ad showing former President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs. Those new Canada tariffs jolted free-trade Republicans, prompting Democrats to force a series of tariff votes.

In theory, Congress could stop Trump’s tariffs through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — but that requires veto-proof majorities. And House Republican leaders changed their rules to prevent such a vote in the lower chamber.

Which leaves the Supreme Court as the only practical way to unravel Trump’s plans in the eyes of pro-trade Republicans and Democrats who say the tariffs are hampering the economy and raising prices.

“I do not think that you can invoke this law that the president is relying on,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “To me, the constitutional authority is pretty clear in vesting in Congress. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it will come out that way.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, even took the rare step of signing onto an amicus brief which argued that Trump “has usurped Congress’s constitutional authority by impermissibly” using his emergency tariff powers. She, Collins and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., all told Semafor they hoped the Supreme Court stopped Trump.

“The Canada retaliatory tariffs are not appropriate, and he had no basis for advancing those,” Murkowski said. “The president has said very clearly that ‘I didn’t like what the premier of Ontario did.’ And boom.”

Other GOP senators are more privately rooting against the tariffs in court.

For the Trump administration, the looming Supreme Court decision on tariffs is possibly the most important outstanding high court decision on its agenda; the president sees tariffs as a way to bring money and manufacturing into the US. Trump suggested earlier this month that he might attend oral arguments next month.

“President Trump lawfully exercised the tariff powers granted to him by Congress to defend our national and economic security from foreign threats. The president’s tariffs remain in effect, and we look forward to ultimate victory on this matter,” said Kush Desai, a spokesperson for the White House.