Opinion: A loss at the Supreme Court

Date: Friday, February 20, 2026

Lars Larson reacts to a Supreme Court decision limiting President Trump’s tariff authority and outlines his view of its economic impact.

Lars Larson provides his perspective on the Supreme Court ruling on President Trump’s tariffs

Lars Larson
The Northwest Nonsense

So, the Supreme Court just handed President Trump a major loss on the question of tariffs.

Trump’s tariff strategy over the last 13 months produced amazing results despite naysayers who predicted that the tariffs on foreign goods would drive inflation higher.

Critics argued that the Emergency Economic Powers act did NOT give any president the power to impose tariffs which act like taxes and only Congress has that authority.

Treasury Secretary Bessent says the federal government will still collect the same amount of tariff revenue … but denying this tariff authority removes one of the tools President Trump has used in negotiations on trade and national security.

Still to be determined is whether importers who paid the tariffs will take the matter to court and demand refunds from the government of up to $200 billion.

All of this comes after Trump scored 21 wins out of 25 cases before the Supreme Court and in the real world. Inflation in the last three months is down 2.1 percent from the bad days of President Autopen. Growth is at 4 percent plus. Gas prices are the lowest in five years. Rents and home buying costs down too.

You can bet this loss won’t make the man in the Oval Office happy and I’m sure we’ll hear that from him today and this weekend.