{"id":19175,"date":"2026-02-20T16:31:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/i-feel-vindicated-anti-tariff-republicans-cheer-as-supreme-court-checks-trump\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T16:31:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:31:45","slug":"i-feel-vindicated-anti-tariff-republicans-cheer-as-supreme-court-checks-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/i-feel-vindicated-anti-tariff-republicans-cheer-as-supreme-court-checks-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I feel vindicated’: Anti-tariff Republicans cheer as Supreme Court checks Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Republican tariff skeptics on Capitol Hill celebrated Friday after the Supreme Court struck down<\/a> the core authority behind President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping global tariffs \u2014 dealing a blow to a major plank of the president\u2019s agenda but offering a welcome off-ramp to GOP lawmakers who viewed the levies as a political loser.<\/p>\n

Retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) broke with Trump and GOP leaders a week ago to help overturn Trump\u2019s Canada tariffs<\/a>. On Friday, he hailed the \u201ccommon sense ruling\u201d by the high court that essentially invalidates those and many other tariffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe checks and balances our Constitution puts in place works,\u201d Bacon said in an interview Friday morning shortly after the decision, adding, \u201cI feel vindicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Republican who backed the effort to overturn the Canada tariffs, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, also praised the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn its face, this case was obvious, because the Constitution vests the power to tax with the legislative branch, not the Executive branch,\u201d Massie said in a text message. \u201cNo contrived emergency can undo that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson and other key GOP leaders did not immediately weigh in on the ruling Friday.<\/p>\n

Trump himself appeared upset at the decision, cutting short remarks he was delivering to governors upon hearing the news at a White House breakfast Friday, according to two people in the room granted anonymity to describe the private event.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was not happy. He got the info in real time,\u201d one of the people said.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the Canada vote last week, Johnson said the congressional effort to overturn Trump\u2019s tariffs was a “fruitless” exercise, given the Supreme Court could rule any day on the underlying emergency authorities Trump invoked to levy them. He urged his conference to hold off on breaking ranks until the decision, but Democrats successfully forced the vote in which all but six Republicans voted to back Trump.<\/p>\n

The ruling comes just four days before Trump is set to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress and an audience that will include the Supreme Court justices who rebuffed the cornerstone of his economic and foreign policy agendas.<\/p>\n

A few GOP backers of the tariffs quickly spoke out, with Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio decrying the ruling as \u201coutrageous\u201d and saying it \u201chandcuffs our fight against unfair trade that has devastated American workers for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese tariffs protected jobs, revived manufacturing, and forced cheaters like China to pay up. Now globalists win,\u201d Moreno added in a social media post Friday.<\/p>\n

The ruling prompted tough questions for both parties about what comes next. Bacon indicated the decision could put an end to a flood of additional tariff disapproval votes headed to the House floor in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see if it\u2019s necessary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But House Democrats want to keep hammering Republicans on the topic in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n

And, Senate Democrats, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss private strategy, are waiting to see how Trump responds to the decision before determining whether to force more votes disapproving of individual emergency declarations.<\/p>\n

Democrats in the Senate had hoped to put up the House-passed Canada resolution for a vote in the coming weeks, but there are ongoing internal conversations over whether it qualifies for special fast-track procedures allowing for a quick simple-majority vote, according to a second person granted anonymity to describe the matter.<\/p>\n

Other Democrats said further action was needed to forestall the Trump administration from sidestepping the ruling, possibly by invoking separate national security powers. Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, who chairs the House Democratic campaign arm and sits on the chamber\u2019s main trade panel, noted that the White House \u201chas promised to use other avenues to maintain these illegal tariffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress must step up to put an end to this chaos and protect our economy,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Asked about the prospect of Trump trying to implement his tariffs through other avenues, Bacon said, \u201cI think they\u2019ll try, but it would not be advisable.\u201d Friday\u2019s ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts broadly defended Congress\u2019s sole power under the Constitution to levy taxes.<\/p>\n

Congress might also end up having to wrangle with the question of whether refunds are due to businesses or consumers who paid levies now found to be illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court has struck down these destructive tariffs, but there is no legal mechanism for consumers and many small businesses to recoup the money they have already paid,\u201d Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) noted in a statement. \u201cInstead, giant corporations with their armies of lawyers and lobbyists can sue for tariff refunds, then just pocket the money for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Republicans are also urging congressional action in response to the ruling, with Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, who chairs the Select Committee on China, pressing for a revocation of Beijing\u2019s permanent normal trade relations status.<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney and Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican tariff skeptics on Capitol Hill celebrated Friday after the Supreme Court struck down the core authority behind President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping global tariffs \u2014 dealing a blow to a major plank of the president\u2019s agenda but offering a welcome off-ramp to GOP lawmakers who viewed the levies as a political loser. Retiring Rep. Don […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}