U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) and Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) think the U.S. Supreme Court got it wrong in their recent decision on President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The court ruled 6-3 against Trump’s sweeping tariffs on most countries, finding that he lacked authority to do so under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“Based on two words separated by 16 others in . . . IEEPA,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in the majority opinion, “‘regulate’ and ‘importation’ — the President asserts the independent power to impose tariffs on imports from any country, of any product, at any rate, for any amount of time. Those words cannot bear such weight.”
Trump called the ruling a “disgrace.”
“I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” he said. “In actuality, I was very modest in my ask of other countries and businesses because… I wanted to be very well-behaved.”
Tuberville, who is also a candidate to be Alabama’s next Governor, said the decision goes against the will of the American people.
“I’m disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision to handcuff the President’s ability to impose tariffs on countries who have been ripping us off for years,” Tuberville said. “77 million Americans voted for President Trump because they knew he would negotiate fair trade deals and put American jobs and businesses first. The President has a phenomenal economic team, and I know they won’t go down without a fight.”
Britt not only didn’t like the ruling, but argued in favor of the President’s overall trade policy.
“What the media won’t tell you is that President Trump’s tariffs work, and that’s why even the Biden Administration left them in place,” Britt said. “Today’s ruling was disappointing, but as [the President] made clear, we are not going to return to the status quo of allowing American jobs and manufacturing to be sidelined in exchange for cheap junk from foreign adversaries. I will continue working with President Trump and his team to bring manufacturing back home.”
The President made it clear Friday that many of the tariffs will be reinstituted under a different authority.
“Other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected,” he said. “We have alternatives. Great alternatives. Could be more money. We’ll take in more money, and we’ll be a lot stronger for it. We’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. We’ll continue to do so.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
