Post
In Gorsuch’s Homage to #Legislative #Power, a Subtle Reproach of a Neutered #Congress
In his concurrence to the ruling invalidating #Trump’s #tariffs, Justice Neil M. #Gorsuch made a forceful case for the sanctity of the legislative process — & an implicit critique of its current #dysfunction.
#law #SCOTUS #SeparationOfPowers #3CoEqualBranchesOfGovernment
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/us/politics/gorsuch-congress-trump-tariffs.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch’s concurring opinion released on Friday after #SCOTUS struck down Trump’s #tariffs concluded with a paean to #Congress that read like a requiem for a bygone era of #legislative #power.
“Yes, legislating can be hard & take time,” wrote Justice #Gorsuch, a #Trump appointee who is part of the court’s #conservative majority. “And yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises.”
#Gorsuch continued, “But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design. Through that process, the nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people’s elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man.”
It was a description of governing completely at odds with what is currently underway across the street from #SCOTUS at the Capitol, where #Republicans controlling the #House & the #Senate have ceded their #power to one man — #Trump.…
Most of Trump’s #GOP allies condemned the ruling, firmly rejecting the idea of insisting on their own branch of government’s constitutional role. Of the few #Republican senators who cheered it as a triumph for #ChecksAndBalances, some had repeatedly voted against blocking some of the sweeping duties #Trump unilaterally imposed, wary of crossing him. And in the #House, GOP leaders used a procedural move for nearly a year to prevent lawmakers from even having to take such a vote.
Asked at a news conference at the White House on Friday whether he now planned to work with #Congress to impose the kinds of sweeping #tariffs he prefers, #Trump said he had no intention of doing so.
“I don’t have to,” he said. “I have the right to do tariffs.”
That has been a position that #Republican leaders have largely preferred not to question.
#law #SCOTUS #SeparationOfPowers #3CoEqualBranchesOfGovernment
@Nonilex Will the Supreme Court judges cancel their Trump fanclub membership?
…It was hard not to detect a note of reproach for the current #dysfunctional state of affairs in #Congress in Justice #Gorsuch’s reflections about the virtues of #legislating, in which, he wrote, “deliberation tempers impulse, & compromise hammers disagreements into workable solutions.”
“For some today, the weight of those virtues is apparent,” he added. “For others, it may not seem so obvious.”
#law #SCOTUS #SeparationOfPowers #3CoEqualBranchesOfGovernment
Most #Republicans in #Congress appear to fall into the latter category. They have sought to give #Trump broad latitude on nearly every issue of significance, including powers normally jealously guarded by legislators, such as the authority to impose #taxes & #tariffs, to allocate federal #spending & to use #military force.
#law #SCOTUS #SeparationOfPowers #3CoEqualBranchesOfGovernment
