CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATIONS

Of The United States Constitution

On February 4, 2025, President Donald J. Trump imposed a new tariff (i.e., a tax) on goods imported from the People’s Republic of China, pursuant to a “national emergency” he had previously declared on February 1, 2025. A federal statute, 50 U.S.C. §§ 1701-1702, implicitly authorizes the President to impose a tax on imports from foreign countries whenever he or she has declared an ongoing “national emergency” with respect to such imports.

The United States Constitution authorizes the Congress, and not the President, to impose taxes on the American people (including importers of goods from foreign countries). U.S. Const., Art. I, § 8, first sentence. The Congress can extend that power to the President whenever it determines, in good faith, that an extension is “necessary and proper for carrying into Execution” its power to tax. See U.S. Const., Art. I, § 8, last sentence. With respect to the President’s new tariff on imports from China, the Congress has not done that. The President’s sudden imposition of a new tariff on imports from China is clearly not “necessary,” or “proper” to carry the federal government’s power to impose tariffs on importers “into Execution.” Lawful importers are not fleeing the country or avoiding tax collectors, and the ultimate decision to impose tariffs on them, or not, is reserved, by the explicit text of the federal Constitution to the elected members of Congress, not the President.

The President’s “executive order” imposing a Congressionally unauthorized “tariff” on American citizens and their businesses clearly exceeds his own powers granted by the Constitution, see U.S. Const., Art. II, §§ 2 and 3. The courts-of- law of the United States should therefore declare that “order” void in any appropriate cases brought before them.