Pro-Trump think tank defends tariffs by dusting off 1930 law blasted by Reagan for worsening Great Depression [View all]
Source: Law & Crime
Jun 25th, 2025, 8:36 pm
On the same day that the Trump administration urged an appellate court to confirm that President Donald Trump was acting well within his authority to impose tariffs on national security and economic grounds, a constitutional law professor representing a pro-Trump think tank separately cited another authority: the Tariff Act of 1930, otherwise known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.
The America First Policy Institute on Tuesday filed court documents as amicus curiae, or friend of the court, joining a chorus of Trump-supporting organizations asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reverse a late-May ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade that said Trump's tariffs, including those imposed on Mexico, Canada and China, were not authorized under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
That ruling is administratively stayed at present pending the outcome of the appeal at the Federal Circuit, and in the meantime, briefs have started to hit the appellate docket.
While the Trump administration's opening brief expressed full-throated support for Trump's tariff powers under the IEEPA and in the face of "grave threats" to national security, the America First Policy Institute, through Yale Law School constitutional law professor Jed Rubenfeld, focused instead on the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act as "the single most relevant federal statute" that hasn't been considered, largely echoing an article Rubenfeld recently published in the Free Press.
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/pro-trump-think-tank-defends-tariffs-by-dusting-off-1930-law-blasted-by-reagan-for-worsening-great-depression/
Link to BRIEF (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105.61.0.pdf
White-washing history.
= new reply since forum marked as read