👋Hi Friends,
📆This Week’s Topic
This week, we are going to go more in-depth on tariffs. Last week, I talked a little bit about how buyers are protecting consumers from tariffs, and did a recap on the Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump Case. The case was argued in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. I am going to discuss tariffs in general and also explain the case, as well as the situation with these tariffs in the last couple of months.
🏛️ Case Intro
The Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump court case is about whether the President has the authority to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to establish or modify tariff policies. Both a U.S. Federal Court & a U.S. Federal Court of Appeals ruled that IEEPA does not give the President the power to impose sweeping tariffs. President Trump appealed the case all the way up to the Supreme Court and the Court heard the argument on November 5th, 2025. If the past rulings are upheld, this could mean that President Trump would need congressional approval for the tariffs.
📊 Overview Of IEEPA
I have mentioned the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) many times in this article as it is relevant to the case. I also mentioned it in a previous article that also outlined the case. The link to that article is here . IEEPA allows the presidents to take various economic actions, and regulating, after a declaration of a national emergencyUnder the law, when there is a national emergency, the president may “regulate … importation or exportation” of “property in which any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest.”. However, IEEPA does not explicitly address whether Presidents can issue tariffs. IEEPA never directly talks about tariff laws, only about the regulation powers. As of the beginning of September of 2025, a national emergency with use of IEEPA has been declared 77 times. These national emergencies often last around 10 years, but certain declarations have lasted much longer. Even though these powers are very broad and sweeping, Congress has never attempted to cancel or end a declaration early.
🏦 Tariff Case Deep Dive
The Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump case began when President Trump imposed tariffs under IEEPA for nearly every country despite the fact that, in the U.S. constitution, the power of imposing tariffs lies in Congress. The argument is whether the power to impose tariffs belongs to Congress (as the constitution says) or whether the power to impose tariffs is shared because Congress has given certain emergency powers to the President in IEEPA. That is what the whole case is about. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said “It’s a congressional power, not a presidential power, to tax,” she told Sauer. “And you want to say tariffs are not taxes, but that’s exactly what they are. They’re generating money from American citizens, revenue.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pointed to what she described as the purpose of IEEPA, noting that the law “was designed and intended to limit presidential authority, that Congress was concerned about how presidents had been using the authority under the predecessor statute.” I think these two statements that were mentioned during the case are very important to understand and label the problem with the tariff/IEEPA connection. It seemed that the Justices were in agreement that IEEPA should not be allowed to influence tariff laws.
Another thing to note is that the tariffs that have been imposed using the IEEPA statute account for about half of the total tariffs, which means even if this passes the Supreme Court there will still be many tariffs that still exist. Tariffs imposed using the IEEPA statute alone have generated $190 billion in customs revenue, although this was a small amount considering President Trump’s prediction of $10 trillion of “Liberation Day”. So in summary, if this passes almost half of the tariffs will not be able to be changed except with Congressional Approval.
🙏Thank You & Important Information
Anyway, thank you so much for reading this edition of Friday Finance. If you have any other things to share click comment and drop a comment or for a more private question hit reply on any Friday Finance email. Until then, have a great week and I will see you next week.
Best,
Jacob Gans
Friday Finance
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