Morning Brew Daily
SCOTUS Shuts Down Trump’s Tariffs & TSA PreCheck Pause Causes Confusion
23 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What was the Supreme Court's ruling on Trump's tariffs?
Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, tariffs have been struck down.
So what now? Then, does a green checkmark mean nothing anymore? TSA PreCheck was thrown into chaos. It's Monday, February 23rd. Let's ride. Let's ride.
Good Monday morning from my couch in Brooklyn. Yes, it is a home pod since we couldn't make it into the studio on account of the blizzard raging outside. I can't really tell you how bad it is because my window is caked in ice, but it's expected to be one of the biggest snowstorms in years.
Along the eastern seaboard, over 40 million people were under blizzard warnings, and places in New Jersey and New York have already received over 12 inches. Some spots in Massachusetts are projected to get over two feet when all is said and done. Travel is, unsurprisingly, not happening.
Most mass transit is shut down in the tri-state area, while over 4,200 flights have already been canceled, including Toby's back from the Midwest, where he is now, aren't you, Toby?
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Chapter 2: How did the TSA PreCheck announcement cause confusion?
I mean, I miss Florida. I have to say it at this point because how many more storms of the century can we have in one winter? I was doing some research. What makes a snowstorm a blizzard? And there is an exact definition. It is only if the snow reduces visibility to a quarter mile or less for three hours or longer. and their sustained winds of 35 miles per hour or greater.
That's according to the National Weather Service. And I looked as of this morning, the winds have not exceeded 35 miles an hour. So right now, Neil, you are not under a blizzard warning. So I don't know where all the complaining is coming from. It's just a big snowstorm.
Also, if you're looking for something to do other than watch Love is Blind, the Department of Sanitation is offering $19.14 per hour of shoveling plus overtime to be an emergency shoveler. So Break out those gloves, Neil.
Okay. The Supreme Court has struck down the majority of President Trump's tariffs. But what happens next is more confusing than when your brother tries to teach you a new board game.
On Friday, in a 6-3 landmark decision, the Supreme Court justices ruled that Trump exceeded his authority by issuing sweeping global reciprocal tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which does not contain the word tariff. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said...
In light of the breadth, history and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he, the president, must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it. Roberts wrote the IEPA law falls short. It is a seismic rebuke of Trump's signature economic policy, one that he aimed to use to boost American manufacturing, raise money for the government and wield as a geopolitical tool.
And he was not happy when the ruling came down. Trump called some of the justices, frankly, a disgrace to our nation and vowed to continue his tariffs by invoking other laws. He did just that hours after the decision, first announcing a 10 percent across the board tariff under a different rule, then on Saturday jacking it up to 15 percent.
As companies and world leaders figure out what this new tariff means for them, there is the $170 billion question of refunds. The U.S. government had collected $170 billion from the tariffs that were just declared illegal, but the Supreme Court instructed a lower court to figure out if, when, and how any refunds will be delivered to importers that had paid the tariffs.
As Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote, that process is likely to be a mess.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of the Supreme Court's tariff decision?
Louis, Missouri, and I feel a bit like a football right now. Such a messy weekend.
Okay, on a practical level, this makes no sense. If you're trying to get the most bang out of your buck for TSA agents, shutting down PreCheck is essentially the complete opposite of what you want to do because it allows for fewer staff to make it work. It disperses the lines where it's just easier to check in people and get them through security. And then we talk about global entry.
It's almost all fully automated. So And observers looking at this from Democrats or Republicans to the airline industry, to the travel industry are we're looking at the TSA decision, especially because it came down at such a last minute and didn't give anybody time to prepare and saying this. This makes no sense.
And once again, the threat, the travel industry feels like, yes, it is a political football. Anytime there is a government shutdown, it feels like. TSA agents who we should mention are not being paid right now. They're they're expected to get their first paycheck a week from Friday or miss their first paycheck a week from Friday. They're not being paid.
So the travel industry is sort of complaining and saying, why are we always on the front lines of these political wranglings? And especially when you do something like threaten to shut down PreCheck and send airports back into chaos. You know, they are they're pretty tired of it.
They're right. It is definitely a political play because it does make no sense to expedite travel by canceling the thing that did expedite travel, that was more efficient. I mean, we've been through TSA pre-check lines. It's pretty good. So both sides are trying to pin this travel pain on the other in this instance. It is a big deal to shut down TSA pre-check though.
Remember, this is a program that costs about $75 to $85 a year. It has more than 20%. 20 million active members. And according to research, pre-check members counted for 34% of passengers screened at airport checkpoints. So this is a wide ranging program. It used to be kind of like a fun thing a couple of years ago where you felt like you were beating the system.
Now it's very much a de facto part of traveling. So to shut that down even briefly affected a lot of people.
Well, maybe we didn't teach you anything in the last story, but in this story, maybe you've learned that the government is partially shut down because I don't think a lot of people know that at least DHS is not being funded. It's not very clear when the two sides are very far apart on this ICE spending issue. And what may happen ultimately is that
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Chapter 4: How are companies reacting to the new tariff situation?
I did find another interpretation of gold medals at the Olympics, though, that I want to share with you. What if you counted every individual medal given out the Olympics? That means one for each member of a relay team or each member of an ice hockey team. This is from an ex-account called Sickos Committee. They did the math.
And wouldn't you know it, the United States actually won under this method with 93 total medals. Norway is in second with 58. So when you factor in every single medal hung on every single neck when it comes to winning hockey, obviously hockey is a massive contributor to that. So if you want to squint, maybe the United States won the medal count.
All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with my winner of the weekend. Neil, I know you don't take investing seriously. You're right. I keep all my money inside my mattress. Don't be like Neil, whose door is almost always unlocked. Be like public.com users who take investing seriously.
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Learn more at public.com slash morningbrew. And you can earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash morningbrew. Paid for by Public Investing. Full disclosure in podcast description. Movement's not about numbers. It's about intention. Been reading those inspirational sports quotes again? Oh, every day.
But I'm talking about things like our Davos trip or early call times. Basically, daily essential movements that we could be more thoughtful about.
Whoop's wearable tech helps with that. With it, you can understand what's going on in your body and make better decisions. Whoop helps build awareness and highlights patterns so you can show up with more presence and intention.
Turn data into meaningful everyday impact. Learn more at join.whoop.com slash brew daily. That's join.whoop.com slash brew daily. My winner of the weekend is people with good neck mobility because that neck mobility leads to better reversing while driving. That reversing leads to backing into parking spots. And according to new data, backing into parking spots is on the rise.
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