Ep. 2372 - LIVE: Supreme Court WRECKS Trump's Tariffs
episodePreviously titled “LIVE: Supreme Court WRECKS Trump's Tariffs” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
Transcript
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
so folks sometimes you wonder what things are actually like here on the ben shapiro show when the cameras are off and the answer is you don't know because we turn the cameras off so you can't see but the reality is the show is way funnier like everything here is way funnier and way spicier it's really crazy so we decided to turn the camera on but only for subscribers only for the people who like us and want to hang out with us and the result is ben after dark it is way funnier way It is way spicier than anything that you will see outside the paywall. The paywall is protection for us. But let's be real. You want to see it. I know you do. So you need to head behind the paywall. Become a subscriber today.
Go check out Ben After Dark tonight, 7.30 p.m. Eastern, exclusively for our members, only at Daily Wire+. Go check it out right now. If you've been thinking about Daily Wire+, why am I doing it? Should I pay for the thing? We humiliate ourselves for your pleasure, but only behind the paywall. Be part of the club. Join Ben After Dark. Alrighty, folks, so huge breaking news. As someone had predicted, that would be me. When President Trump pushed forward his so-called Liberation Day tariffs, the Supreme Court struck down those Liberation Day tariffs today. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court basically struck down the 10% baseline tariff on all trading partners. It struck down higher reciprocal tariffs, what he called reciprocal tariffs, on dozens of countries.
They weren't actually reciprocal tariffs because those countries were not actually charging us those tariffs. We just were charging them higher tariffs on the basis of trade deficits. Drug trafficking tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China, those are gone. And the 145% effective rate on most Chinese goods is gone as well. The Supreme Court says that the president does not have the unilateral authority or ability to actually just impose broad scale tariffs. Now, the president does have some specified tariff powers. We'll get to that in a minute. But The reason that I had said originally that these tariffs were unconstitutional is because Article 1, powers of the purse belong to Congress. They do. That includes, obviously, the power to tariff.
Article 1 of the Constitution specifically names the powers of the purse. And it says... that the Constitution includes the authority to tax, borrow money, regulate commerce, coin money, establish post offices, declare war, and raise armed forces. That is what is in the tax and spend and commerce powers of Congress. Now, the question is, what can be delegated, what can't be delegated, and what also has been delegated? So obviously, in certain specified contexts, Congress has delegated specific tariff authority to the president. But at any point, did Congress just say to the president, you can tariff anybody for any reason, interminably, at any rate that you want? And the answer there, says the Supreme Court, is no.
Now, it's sort of a fascinating breakdown. I agree with the decision legally. I think this is obviously a correct decision from the Supreme Court. We'll get to sort of the fascinating dissent in a second because the breakdown, which was six to three, in my opinion, should have been nine, nothing, but it was six to three for a couple of interesting reasons. Justice Roberts wrote the opinion. It was joined by Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Barrett, and Jackson. The more traditionally textualist leaning members of the court actually voted in favor of upholding the tariffs. That would be Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh joined with them. Now, as you know, I'm a Clarence Thomas stan, like his biggest fan. So it takes a lot for me to disagree with Justice Thomas.
What are the details of the Supreme Court's decision on Trump's tariffs?
There's a rare case where I disagree with Justice Thomas and also huge Alito stan, a rare case where I disagree with Justice Alito. The question under consideration here was whether the president of the United States is the unilateral authority under the IEPA, which is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which is the power cited by the president of the United States to levy tariffs on the entire world at once.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:24
2
What are the details of the Supreme Court's decision on Trump's tariffs?
3:24–7:08
3
How did the Supreme Court justify striking down the tariffs?
7:08–8:10
4
What constitutional powers does Congress have regarding tariffs?
8:10–11:13
5
What arguments were made for and against the president's tariff authority?
11:13–56:45
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Ben Shapiro Show
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