My column today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Special to the Post-Gazette

Mar 9, 2026

4:30 AM

The Supreme Court not only did the right thing in striking down President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the justices may have saved the Republic in doing so. Trump was claiming extraordinary authority to impose tariffs under a statute that seemed to grant him no such power. 

If he could do that, you could say America no longer had constitutional government.

But the Court was not judging tariffs, just the President’s authority to impose them unilaterally.

Now is the time for Republicans in Congress to pass legislation giving Trump the authority he says he needs to negotiate his trade deals.

Give him a chance

That is the way our political system is supposed to work. Trump ran for President in large part on his promise to impose tariffs to try to reinvigorate the American economy.

The American people not only elected him on that promise, they gave him a Republican-majority Congress to write the laws to make that happen. There is nothing unconstitutional or even unusual about this.

A tariff is just a sales tax placed on imported goods and services. The Court held that if the president is going to have the power to place such levies, Congress must give it to him. So, Republicans, give it to him.

I believe tariffs are a bad idea and that Trump’s erratic style in imposing them was even worse. Nevertheless, Trump deserves the chance to make his policies work. Or else, what are elections for?

Trump is trying to cobble together other statutory authorizations to put his tariff regime back together. But these other statutes are ill-suited to his goal of negotiating trade deals country by country. Trump needs a new statute.

There are three reasons congressional Republicans are not acting. First, Trump has not asked them to act. He is stubborn about proceeding on his own. But in this case, that will not work.

Second, some Republicans apparently have doubts about the efficacy of tariffs to bring prosperity and the wisdom of handing Trump a blank check to impose them. But they don’t dare express these doubts publicly. 

The American people have a right to know that the political party they voted for is fractured over tariffs. These Republicans must be forced into the open through the legislative process.

Don’t fear the Democrats

But the main reason Republicans are not acting is the certainty of a Democratic Party filibuster in the Senate over any tariff legislation. Republicans do not have the required 60 votes in the Senate to invoke cloture and pass a tariff bill.

This filibuster threat by Democrats is a shameful betrayal of democracy. If the filibuster is ever justified, it is only to block fundamental changes in law. The filibuster should never be used on something as ordinary and easy to reverse as tax policy, which is all that a tariff bill is. Presidents have been given authority over tariffs before.

In recent years, both major political parties have begun to filibuster any legislation supported primarily by the other party. They have transformed the Senate into a body that routinely requires 60 votes to pass legislation. 

That is not the design of the framers of the Constitution. It deadlocks government and is one of the reasons that people are so frustrated and unhappy with politics. A person running for president might just as well say, vote for me but I won’t do anything because I won’t have 60 votes in the Senate.

Democrats do not realize that by holding the country hostage via the filibuster, they are inviting the very presidential government that they accuse Trump of fostering. If you want democracy, you have to let it work.

Fortunately, Republicans can eliminate the filibuster tomorrow by majority vote. This has already been done for most presidential nominations, like federal judges and cabinet officers. Those nominations only need a majority vote for confirmation. 

The filibuster has also been removed from what are called budget reconciliation bills, which means in effect that Republicans can cut taxes and Democrats can increase spending with only 51 votes in the Senate.

This incoherent mess of exceptions needs to end.

End the filibuster

Republicans are afraid to eliminate the filibuster entirely because they fear what Democrats will do if they recapture Congress and the presidency. 

First of all, Republicans should stop being afraid of the voters. Second, Democrats cannot pass anything unconstitutional. They cannot give the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico representation in the Senate, which are two things Republicans claim they need the filibuster to block.

Anyway, Democrats are so mad about Trump’s excesses, they may eliminate the filibuster as soon as they return to power. So, why wait?

If Republicans are afraid of eliminating the filibuster altogether, they could just exempt any commercial legislation from its use. Then they could pass a bill giving Trump tariff authority.

Elections are supposed to have consequences. But they cannot have proper consequences unless Congress can pass the legislation that the people have voted for. Without that, presidents are tempted to act on their own, which is unconstitutional. 

Republicans, save us. Pass a tariff bill.

Bruce Ledewitz, a contributing writer for the Post-Gazette’s editorial page, is professor of law emeritus at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University. He writes every other Monday. The views expressed do not represent those of Duquesne University. His previous article was “We don’t need voter ID because voter fraud isn’t a problem.”