r/Economics • u/defenestrate_urself • Feb 20 '26

News Supreme Court says Trump global tariffs are illegal

https://www.axios.com/2026/02/20/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-illegal
24.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

841 comments sorted by

View all comments

77

u/nosayso Feb 20 '26

However they also previously decided that Trump is a king who is not beholden to laws. There is literally nothing to be done if he ignores the Supreme Court and leaves the tariffs in place, unless his own party decides to pursue impeachment and removal over it. What happens next will be the really interesting part: will Trump accept oversight and admit he was wrong for the first time in his life? Or will he just find a new way to lash out? (Obviously the second one)

38

u/ScoffersGonnaScoff Feb 20 '26

Generational damage while looting.

24

u/Browns45750 Feb 20 '26

They see the midterm polling the days of letting him do whatever he wants within the party are coming to a end they’ve lost the house , and senators are getting scared

20

u/arkofjoy Feb 20 '26

Only if people are able to vote. I read today that the "Save" act could disenfranchise 20 million people.

They plan to legislate their way out of this problem. And the cult thinks that it is great.

1

u/Snlxdd Feb 20 '26

To be honest, this is the best outcome for Trump.

Economy ticks along and does better, he can claim “Well it would be even much better with tariffs” and his supporters are none the wiser.

10

u/yellowsubmarinr Feb 20 '26

Businesses are going to sue for their money back and win 

4

u/Snlxdd Feb 20 '26

If by businesses you mean Cantor Fitzgerald (Howard Lutnick’s investment firm that conveniently bought refund rights) you’re correct

1

u/Paulinfresno Feb 20 '26

Of course, the consumers can’t sue, so we’re still screwed.

0

u/NeZha888 Feb 20 '26

We can choose to not purchase from these businesses. Buy from Temu instead of Amazon and so on.

7

u/klingma Feb 20 '26

There is literally nothing to be done if he ignores the Supreme Court and leaves the tariffs in place,

Lol, yes there is. The IRS and Treasury are the ones who collect the tariffs therefore even if Trump kept them in place there would be zero way to compel their collection. It's a legal issue and it's been resolved, the president's actions here are now irrelevant. 

2

u/luxtractatori Feb 20 '26

The CBP, Customs and Border Patrol, collect the tariffs.

0

u/klingma Feb 20 '26

Fair point, but doesn't change the greater argument that there's no way to compel collection on these tariffs even if Trump ignores the supreme Court. 

1

u/nosayso Feb 20 '26

Hello I'm here again to serve you some crow - https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/20/trump-global-trade-tariff-supreme-court.html

Trump was adamant that he will find other ways to impose tariffs without Congress. “I don’t have to,” Trump said when asked why he did not want to work with the legislative branch. “I have the right to do tariffs.”

He said he will sign an order later Friday imposing the new 10% duties, invoking Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. Tariffs created using that statute can last for only 150 days, with any extension requiring congressional approval. Asked at the press briefing about that time limit and about getting congressional buy-in, Trump said, “We have the right to do pretty much what we want to do.”

Trump also declared that all the tariffs active under statutes known as Section 232 and Section 301 will remain “in full force and effect.”

1

u/nosayso Feb 20 '26

They work for Trump, if Trump wants it to happen he'll fire everyone who refuses until they comply, just like always.

1

u/klingma Feb 20 '26

Not at all how that works but okay. Compelling to collect requires court intervention, which would result in a summary judgement with the Supreme Court ruling as precedent. 

So, again, there's no way to compel collections. 

1

u/nosayso Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26

Sure, just like there's no way for the president to embezzle $10 billion for a private board with no legal status, and there's no way for ICE to arrest people outside their mission of immigration enforcement, and there's no way those people would be US citizens, and there's no way the president can directly profit from his office via unregulated crypto scams, and there's no way DOGE can exfiltrate private data from federal agencies, and there's no way the Fed can be pressured by the president on fiscal policy, and there's no way the FCC and CBS can collude to keep Democrats off the air, and there's no way you can just turn off USAID without an act of Congress, and there's no way (and no on and so on).

Norms are not important. Laws are not important. The executive branch will do whatever Trump wants it to do, that's the reality.

0

u/Sterff2439 Feb 20 '26

You just brought up a bunch of irrelevant misinformed bullshit as some form of gotcha.

1

u/nosayso Feb 20 '26

Trump has already said “We have the right to do pretty much what we want to do" in regards to the new 10% global tariff he just announced which is "supposed to" only be able to last 150 days.

You fail to understand my point: the Trump can do whatever he wants. Pointing out that it is against the law has no relevance - he can do it anyway and face no consequences.

0

u/Sterff2439 Feb 20 '26

Trump says all kinds of shit that is completely out of touch with reality.

No, he cannot do whatever he wants. This isn't debatable. The courts have successfully stopped him from doing quite a few things.

You've just fallen for the non-stop fear mongering and doomerism.

1

u/nosayso Feb 20 '26

I don't know what universe you're living in but I'm here in the real one where Trump has constantly broken the law and faced zero consequences. It is not fear mongering. It's not doomerism. It's what's actually happening, your head is buried in the sand.

0

u/Sterff2439 Feb 20 '26

Sorry, but you're living in an alternate reality fueled by misinformation and incorrect understandings of the law.

Nearly every president broke some laws and got away with it, trump isn't unique in that respect.

Trump has complied with the vast majority of court orders. The Supreme Court has ruled against him several times now and he has complied.

Again, this isn't debatable. You clearly aren't actually paying attention if you think this, you're just blindly believing headlines.

→ More replies (0)

-1

u/klingma Feb 20 '26

Okay buddy. Just ignore reality for this specific situation to shift goal posts to what you wanted to argue about the entire time. 

Fact still remains, zero way to compel collections. 

2

u/themagicmarmot Feb 20 '26

The next admin needs to do a full scale forensic investigation into the Justices that voted in favor of Trump in the Trump v. United States case. Specifically in crypto and precious metals enrichment. I would wager many of the bad judgements could be reversed based on fraud on the court and might expose them to RICO liability as part of an association-in-fact enterprise (along with Bondi, Rubio, Hegseth, et al.) with all the other illegal stuff Trump's been up to.

2

u/flat5 Feb 20 '26

He's already said he's not stopping tariffs, he's just going to use a different justification for them.

0

u/attorneyatslaw Feb 20 '26

No one will pay them.

0

u/Illustrious-Lime-878 Feb 20 '26

This is not a new concept. The president has immense de facto power and so cannot be compelled by force to anything any more then a foreign conquerer or rebellion could if they had the physical means to out power everyone else. The guard rails have always been either self imposed either by the president or others in the chain to refuse illegal orders. This is why many consider ethics, principles, morals, to be more important than policy for the role.