Federal Circuit Judges Question Trump's Discovery of Vast Tariff Powers
The president is claiming "unbounded authority" to impose import taxes based on a law that does not mention them.
Executive Branch
How 'National Security' Came Unmoored From Americans' Actual Security
The turning point was the New Deal.
Federal Court Appears Receptive to Arguments Against Unilateral Presidential Tariff Power
President Trump’s invocation of emergency powers to impose tariffs faces skeptical judges.
Trump Is Openly Using the Presidency To Enrich the Trump Brand
And generations of allegedly anti-corruption Republicans just don't care.
Hiking Tariffs on Canada, Trump Demands 'Adequate Steps' To Achieve an Impossible Drug War Goal
Canada accounts for a tiny percentage of fentanyl smuggling, which cannot be stopped by trying harder.
Are Trump's Tariffs Responding to an Actual Emergency?
If so, then why postpone any enforcement until October?
El Salvador Just Made It Legal for Bukele To Stay in Power Indefinitely
With near-total control of Congress, Nayib Bukele’s party eliminated key limits on presidential power.
My New Dispatch Article on Judicial Review of Emergency Powers
It makes the case for strong judicial review of executive invocations of sweeping emergency powers.
Law Firms Take Fewer Pro Bono Clients After Trump's Unconstitutional Orders
Even though the president has lost every time the orders have come before a judge, big law firms are still hesitant to upset the king and incur his wrath.
Can Trump Use Emergency Powers To Tax All Imports? His Tariffs Are Back in Court on Thursday.
To win in court, the Trump administration will have to argue against a pair of legal theories that conservatives have spent years developing as a way to check executive power.
Trump's Birthright Citizenship Order Is Unconstitutional, Says the First Appeals Court to Consider the Issue
The judgment is not surprising, since the president's reading of the 14th Amendment contradicts its text and history, plus 127 years of Supreme Court precedent.
Major Orange Juice Importer Files Lawsuit Challenging Trump's Planned Brazil Tariffs
The case raises many of the same issues as our case against Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs.
Federal Judge to Trump on FTC Commissioner Firing: No, You Can't Fire Whomever You Want
The ruling upholds protections afforded to officers of the "quasi legislative or quasi judicial agencies" created by Congress.
Eleventh Circuit Upholds For-Cause Removal Requirement for Administrative Law Judges
Will the en banc court agree? Will the Supreme Court?
Defending the Court of International Trade Ruling Against Trump's Tariffs—A Reply to Estreicher and Babbitt [Updated]
Estreicher and Babbitt are right to conclude that Trump's tariffs violate the nondelegation doctrine, but wrong to reject other arguments against them.
Trump's Plan to Impose 50% Tariffs on Brazil Highlights Illegal and Harmful Nature of his Trade Policy
It's an obvious abuse of emergency powers, a claim to unconstitutional delegation of legislative power, and a threat to the economy and the rule of law.
The 8th Circuit Court Was Right To Kill the FTC's 'Click-to-Cancel' Rule
The Federal Trade Commission ignored mandatory regulatory impact analyses in an attempt to institute its "click-to-cancel" rule.
Trump Won't Enforce the TikTok Ban. Is That Constitutional?
The Constitution requires the president to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
Overview of the Amicus Briefs Filed in Our Tariff Case
The diversity and quality of the briefs opposing Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs speaks for itself.
Courts Can Check, and Have Checked, Executives' Military Judgment
Katherine Yon Ebright and Leah Tulin of the Brennan Center make the case against judicial deference to Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Appeals Court Briefs Say Trump's Tariffs Are Based on a Statute That Does Not Authorize Tariffs at All
The Cato Institute and the New Civil Liberties Alliance urge the Federal Circuit to extend the logic of a decision against the president's far-reaching import taxes.
Trump Can Take Revenge on the 'Deep State': Pardon Snowden
Why Edward Snowden deserves not only a presidential pardon, but a hero's welcome home.
Either Repeal or Enforce—but Ideally Repeal—the TikTok Ban
The ban is a bad law. But leaving it on the books and willfully ignoring it sets a potentially more dangerous precedent.
Trump vs. the Declaration of Independence
Several of the items on the Declaration's list of grievances against King George III also apply to Donald Trump today.
A Broad Ruling Against Trump's Immigration Policies Illustrates Alternatives to Universal Injunctions
Class actions and Administrative Procedure Act claims can achieve much the same result as the nationwide orders that the Supreme Court rejected.
Federal Court Rules Against Trump's "Invasion" Executive Order
But, notably, the court chose not to rule on the issue of what qualifies as an "invasion."
Trump's 'Giant Win' Does Not Validate His Unconstitutional Birthright Citizenship Order
Tellingly, the president avoided defending his dubious interpretation of the 14th Amendment at the Supreme Court.
Trump Says the Courts Have No Business Questioning His Dubious Definition of 'Alien Enemies'
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit is considering whether the president properly invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members.
A Flawed, but Encouraging Nondelegation Decision
The Supreme Court may have reached the wrong result in FCC v. Consumers Research. But ruling emphasizes there are significant constitutional limits to legislative delegation to the executive.
Supreme Court Rules 6–3 for Trump, Limits 'Nationwide Injunctions' in Birthright Citizenship Case
“Federal courts do not exercise general oversight of the Executive Branch,” declared Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Using the National Guard in DEA Raids Is the Worst Kind of Drug War Mission Creep
The deployment of National Guard soldiers on a DEA drug raid is a serious test of whether the Posse Comitatus Act means something or not.
Harvard Turns to the Private Sector To Finance Research After Losing Federal Funding
This pivot to privately funded research could reduce the burden on taxpayers and lead to more scientific breakthroughs.
Trump's Controlling Stake in U.S. Steel Is Indefensible Socialist Nonsense
Any decisions made by U.S. Steel's executives and shareholders will require approval from Trump, his appointees, or his successors.
Ro Khanna: Congress Must Take Back Its War Powers
Rep. Ro Khanna (D–Calif.) discusses the War Powers Resolution he co-sponsored with Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.), the Israel-Iran conflict, and why the antiestablishment left and right must work together.
Michael McConnell and Neal Katyal Join Our Tariff Litigation Team
They are prominent legal scholars and Supreme Court litigators from opposite sides of the political spectrum.
Trump's Iran Air Strikes and the Constitution
The strikes violate both the Constitution and the 1973 War Powers Act. Whether they are good policy is a more difficult question. This could turn out to be a rare instance where one of Trump's illegal actions has beneficial results.
The Attack on Iran Is Unlawful
Trump's attack on Iran plainly violates the War Powers Act. Limits on executive power are most important when they are inconvenient.
The 9th Circuit Rejects Trump's Audacious Claim That He Can Use the National Guard However He Likes
Although the appeals court said the president probably complied with the law he invoked to justify his California deployment, it emphasized that such decisions are subject to judicial review.
Trump Argues That He Can Take Over a State's National Guard Whenever He Feels Like It
The government's lawyer told a 9th Circuit panel the president's deployments are "unreviewable," so he need not even pretend to comply with the statute on which he is relying.
Whether or Not Trump Invokes It, the Insurrection Act Is Antiquated and Dangerously Broad
On its face, the law gives the president sweeping authority to deploy the military in response to domestic disorder.
Have Presidents Grown Too Powerful To Be Removed From Office?
Joe Biden showed that the 25th Amendment doesn't work. Donald Trump showed that impeachment is broken too.
The Restraining Order Against Federalizing the California National Guard Highlights Trump's Lawlessness
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer concluded that the president failed to comply with the statute he cited—and violated the 10th Amendment too.
My New Verfassungsblog Article On "The Nondelegation Case Against Trump's New Travel Ban"
It explains why a nondelegation challenge could work and deserves to win, despite Trump v. Hawaii.
Federal Court Rightly Invalidates Trump's Illegal Federalization of California National Guard Troops
Trump's policy here is yet another example of abusive invocation of emergency powers.
Trump's L.A. National Guard Deployment Stands on Shaky Legal Ground
Plus: When Stalin Meets Star Wars.
The Trump Administration Is Escalating an Immigration Crisis It Promised To Resolve
The border is no longer the focus. Now, the White House wants you to believe that the crisis extends to nail salons, hardware stores, farms, and restaurants across the country.
