Lawrence O’Donnell: It Is ‘No Longer Legal’ at Any Port of Entry in the U.S. to Collect a Single Dollar of Trump Tariffs

O’DONNELL: “The breaking news of the night is that Donald Trump’s illegal tariffs are gone thanks to a ruling of the United States Court of International Trade. Futures trading is now soaring tonight in the expectation of an explosively positive reaction by the stock market tomorrow, when the world will reset itself around the restoration of law and order in international trade and the crushing of the Trump tariffs and resultant personal worldwide humiliation of Donald Trump. The Trump tariffs were always illegal and unconstitutional, and you heard that on this program every time we covered Donald Trump’s comments about tariffs, including very much during the presidential campaign, when the campaign press corps never, ever reported to voters that the Trump proposed tariffs during the campaign were completely illegal and unconstitutional. The campaign press corps never reported to voters that those proposals were constitutionally insane, and the person pronouncing those proposals at those Trump rallies was constitutionally out of his mind, just based on what he was saying about tariffs alone. The campaign press corps completely failed the American voter on this issue, with American voters just discovering tonight from the International Court of Trade just how illegal and unconstitutional the Trump tariffs always have been. the United States Court of International Trade, which has exclusive jurisdiction over cases involving tariff disputes, has ruled unanimously that when it comes to tariffs, Donald Trump does not have ‘unbounded authority,’ and the court sets aside the challenged tariffs. The court gave the plaintiffs suing the Trump Administration even more than they expected. The plaintiffs include 12 states with Democratic governors who sued, arguing that the Trump tariffs are unconstitutional and illegal, and asked the court for at least a temporary injunction temporarily blocking the tariffs. But the court went all the way and delivered a full and final ruling in the case, granting what the court calls a summary judgment against Donald Trump and all of his tariffs. So, as of this hour tonight, it is no longer legal at any port of entry in the United States for a United States customs service to collect a single dollar of Trump tariffs. Civil lawsuits like this seldom have such total and complete and final victories. Just two weeks after the court heard arguments in the case, victories in this case for plaintiffs at this stage of this kind of litigation are very unusual. But here we are. And as I’ve been reporting to you literally for years now, there are few things more clear in law than Congress’s complete authority over tariffs. The Court of International Trade said in its opinion that even if Congress wanted to give Donald Trump power over tariffs, it would be unconstitutional to do so. ‘An unlimited delegation of tariff authority would constitute an improper abdication of legislative power to another Branch of government’ Donald Trump’s illegal tariffs were based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, and today, finally, the Court of International Trade said what I’ve been saying since the day Donald Trump invoked that law to support his tariffs. ‘Any interpretation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act that delegates unlimited tariff authority is unconstitutional.’ The court rejected Donald Trump’s claim of a national emergency to justify his tariffs, saying, ‘The mere incantation of national emergency cannot, of course, sound the death-knell of the Constitution.’ And that’s what Donald Trump is trying to do. He’s trying to kill the Constitution of the United States in a different way every day. He tried and failed thanks to the Court of International Trade, to sound the death-knell of the Constitution by stealing Congress’s exclusive power over tariffs. And in a 49-page ruling coauthored by three judges of the Court of International Trade in New York City, Donald Trump’s attempts to kill the Constitution this time have failed. Judge Gary Katzmann was appointed by President Obama, Judge Jane Restani was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, Judge Timothy Reif was appointed by Republican President Donald Trump, and those three judges unanimously agreed to every word in tonight’s breaking news opinion that there is nothing in American law that can make Donald Trump’s tariffs legal.”