Has any President ever misplaced such a major case earlier than the Supreme Court docket? I do not assume so. That’s the theme of my newest piece in City Journal, titled “Trump’s Tariff Loss Is the Worst Judicial Defeat in Presidential Historical past.”
Right here is the introduction:
How dangerous was President Trump’s loss final week on the Supreme Court docket within the tariffs case? Actually dangerous.
How does this defeat examine with different losses suffered by presidents on the Court docket? There isn’t any sugarcoating it: the Roberts Court docket handed Trump the worst judicial defeat in presidential historical past.
There is not even an in depth second. Not Richard Nixon’s Watergate case. Not Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal setback. Not Harry S. Truman’s try to seize metal mills. Not George W. Bush’s Conflict on Terror losses. None have been in the identical ballpark because the ruling in Studying Sources v. Trump. Even when these presidents misplaced, their very own appointees typically dominated of their favor—in distinction to Trump, who noticed two of his personal nominees rule towards him.
The outcomes counsel that Trump will undergo many extra defeats within the the rest of his second time period—typically via the votes of justices he chosen.
And the conclusion:
All these defeats pale compared with the tariffs case. Whereas Justice Kavanaugh argued that the president might use different powers to perform the identical ends, time will inform whether or not a majority of the Court docket would reject these grounds, as nicely. In any case, the Studying Sources ruling has drastically diminished tariffs’ utility as a bargaining chip, since negotiators on the opposite aspect of the desk now have ample cause to consider that the courts will bail them out.
It stays to be seen whether or not the Supreme Court docket will proceed to hobble President Trump for the rest of his second time period, however the tariff ruling suggests a rocky highway forward.
I feel we’re already seeing that Trump’s efforts to make use of different statutory authorities won’t work.
I’m dreading what may come on the State of the Union tonight.
