Just as the Clean Air Act did not authorize the Environmental Protection Agency to cap carbon emissions from existing power plants, and just as the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act did not authorize the Department of Education to erase hundreds of billions of dollars in college debt, the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to reshape the global economic order unilaterally. Federal courts should put a stop to President Donald Trump’s new tariff regime before it inflicts permanent economic damage.

This publication does not support political interference by federal courts, but it does want courts to restrain the executive (and legislature) when either of those two bodies acts outside what is permitted by the Constitution or statute.