President Donald Trump revealed which Supreme Court justice he considers to be his “new hero” after a high court ruling rejected his sweeping tariff powers on Friday.
Trump made the declaration in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday morning, a day after the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to block Trump’s tariff powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
“My new hero is United States Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and, of course, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito,” the post read. “There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that they want to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
While all three justices voted with the minority, Kavanaugh wrote a fiery dissent that called the high court’s decision “illogical.”
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“As they interpret the statute, the President could, for example, block all imports from China but cannot order even a $1 tariff on goods imported from China,” Kavanaugh wrote. “That approach does not make much sense.”
Kavanaugh asserted that the IEEPA “does not draw such an odd distinction between quotas and embargoes on the one hand and tariffs on the other,” but rather empowers the president to regulate imports during national emergencies using tools such as quotas, embargoes and tariffs.
Trump last year bypassed Congress and unilaterally levied tariffs on nearly every country in the world by invoking the IEEPA. The president argued that an influx of illicit drugs from China, Mexico and Canada and a trade deficit that has decimated American manufacturing constituted emergencies that justified the tariffs.
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Trump, in a Friday speech remarking on the decision, praised Kavanaugh for “his genius and his great ability,” adding he was “very proud of that appointment.”
Kavanaugh wrote in his dissent that while he disagrees with the court’s ruling, its decision may not “substantially constrain” a president’s ability to order tariffs going forward because of “numerous other federal statutes” that allow the president to impose tariffs.
The justice added that the court’s decision may, however, have substantial interim effects.
“The United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others,” Kavanaugh wrote. “As was acknowledged at oral argument, the refund process is likely to be a ‘mess.’”
He added that the high court’s decision could “generate uncertainty” regarding what the government has said were trade deals worth trillion of dollars with foreign nations, including with China, the United Kingdom and Japan.
Trump on Saturday raised the global tariff to 15% — up from the 10% global tariff he announced Friday in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. He cited Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 in announcing the new levy.
