The Trump tariff case before the Supreme Court could force Chief Justice John Roberts to confront his own precedent.
Tomorrow, President Donald Trump will face the biggest legal test yet of his second term when the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Learning Resources v. Trump, the case challenging the president’s supposed authority to unilaterally impose tariffs without first receiving explicit authorization from Congress.
But tomorrow’s case is also a big test for Chief Justice John Roberts. Just two years ago, Roberts led the Supreme Court in rejecting a similar claim of unilateral executive power by then-President Joe Biden. If Roberts now allows Trump to get away with the same kind of executive overreach that Roberts previously stopped Biden from getting away with, Roberts’ credibility as a principled judicial arbiter will be sullied forever.
When the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in 2023 over Biden’s efforts to cancel billions of dollars in federal student loan debt via executive action, the chief justice offered a revealing sneak peek into his thinking.
According to «your view», Roberts told Biden’s solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar, «the president can act unilaterally» and «there was no role for Congress to play in this either.
