Clarence Thomas Questions Lawyer on Tariffs vs. Embargoes Legality

The Legality of Presidential Tariffs

• 💡 The core argument is that tariffs are taxes, taking money from Americans and depositing it into the US Treasury, a power historically reserved for Congress.
• 🎯 The attorney argues that the AIPA statute is not a tax statute and was not intended to grant the president the power to overhaul the entire tariff system.
• 🔑 It's argued that Congress has always delegated tariff powers explicitly with real limits, unlike AIPA, which uses the word "regulate" without specific tariff language or limitations.
• ⚠️ The attorney highlights that no president has used AIPA to impose tariffs in its 50-year history, despite its use for economic sanctions thousands of times.

Tariffs vs. Embargoes Distinction

• ⚖️ Justice Thomas questioned whether the argument against presidential tariffs also applies to embargoes.
• 💰 The attorney distinguishes tariffs as revenue-raising measures, unlike embargoes which primarily stop shipments, and notes the historical fear of revenue-raising by the founders.
• 📜 Textually, the statute's verbs like "regulate" are argued to describe embargo-like controls (prevent, prohibit) rather than revenue exactions, with no verb related to raising revenue present.
• 🏛️ Unlike embargoes, the current tariff architecture has numerous statutes that expressly confer tariff power with clear limits, such as Section 122 with a 15% cap and 150-day limit.

Non-Delegation Doctrine and Tariffs

• 🚀 The attorney asserts that the non-delegation argument applies to tariffs because they are uniquely revenue-raising and pose special concerns dating back to the founding.
• 📜 Historical examples show Congress delegating embargo power to President Washington but not tariff authority at that time.
• 📌 The argument is not that tariff authority cannot be delegated, but that it must be done with intelligible principles and clear limits, which AIPA allegedly lacks.
• 🚫 The attorney points out that the only compromise limit in AIPA, the legislative veto, is no longer in the statute.