Catie Edmondson writes:

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch’s concurring opinion released on Friday after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s tariffs concluded with a paean to Congress that read like a requiem for a bygone era of legislative power.

“Yes, legislating can be hard and take time,” wrote Justice Gorsuch, a Trump appointee who is part of the court’s conservative majority. “And yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design. Through that process, the nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people’s elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man.”

It was a description of governing completely at odds with what is currently underway across the street from the Supreme Court at the Capitol, where Republicans controlling the House and the Senate have ceded their power to one man — Mr. Trump — on a variety of issues. In essence, they are acting as if they have no wisdom to tap, or no business doing so.

Most of Mr. Trump’s G.O.P. allies condemned the ruling, firmly rejecting the idea of insisting on their own branch of government’s constitutional role. Of the few Republican senators who cheered it as a triumph for checks and balances, some had repeatedly voted against blocking some of the sweeping duties Mr. Trump unilaterally imposed, wary of crossing him. And in the House, G.O.P. leaders used a procedural move for nearly a year to prevent lawmakers from even having to take such a vote.

Asked at a news conference at the White House on Friday whether he now planned to work with Congress to impose the kinds of sweeping tariffs he prefers, Mr. Trump said he had no intention of doing so.

“I don’t have to,” he said. “I have the right to do tariffs.”

That has been a position that Republican leaders have largely preferred not to question. [Continue reading…]