Supreme Court Justices Sit in Silence in State of the Union

Supreme Court Justices

The justices of the Supreme Court of the United States sat in visible silence during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address as he sharply criticized their recent ruling limiting his administration’s authority to impose certain tariffs without congressional approval. “President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address Tuesday to slam the Supreme Court’s decision against his sweeping emergency tariffs, repeatedly calling the ruling “unfortunate” even as he suggested his administration would quickly move past it,” according to CNN News.

In a pointed segment of his speech, Trump accused the Court of “undermining America’s economic sovereignty” by striking down key elements of his tariff policy. The decision, issued earlier this year, held that the executive branch had exceeded its statutory authority under existing trade laws when imposing sweeping tariffs on imported goods.

“As your president, I will always fight for American workers,” Trump said from the House chamber. “But unelected judges should not be rewriting trade policy from the bench.”

The justices, seated in the front row as is customary during a joint session of Congress, did not react publicly to the remarks.

The ruling in question curtailed the administration’s use of emergency economic powers to justify broad tariffs on a range of imports.

Many of the scholars that were interpreting this particular fact that Trump was criticizing the judiciaries is not something that does not ever happen. Tensions between the Executive and the Judiciary branch is something that have happened before, when it comes down to immigration, health care and other situations. Legal scholars said the president’s public criticism of the Court during a formal address to Congress is unusual but not unprecedented. Tensions between the executive branch and the judiciary have surfaced before, particularly in cases involving immigration, health care, and executive authority.

Some Democratic lawmakers applauded the Court’s decision during the speech, while many Republicans remained seated as Trump described what he called a “deeply flawed” interpretation of federal trade law. “The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s authority to impose tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which no president had used to implement tariffs before. But, it’s worth noting that these tariffs only accounted for about half of all the import taxes the government had been collecting,” according to NPR News.

Chief Justice and associate justices traditionally attend the State of the Union as a symbol of the separation of powers, though some members of the Court have opted out in past years.

Sources:

CNN News: Supreme Court justices sit in silence at State of the Union as Trump slams their tariffs decision

NPR News: Why prices won’t drop after the Trump tariff ruling, according to economists

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