Can the US President Impose Taxes?

Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit — which sits right below the Supreme Court — heard a case of profound constitutional importance. It is the government’s appeal of a ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade, which found that President Donald Trump’s unilateral imposition of tariffs on certain goods entering the United States from certain foreign countries is unconstitutional.

The lower court recognized that the Constitution established the separation of powers and gave the taxing power exclusively to Congress.

Here is the backstory.

The Constitution establishes a structure that separates powers among the three branches and articulates their core responsibilities. Congress writes the laws in areas of governance delegated to it. The president enforces the laws faithfully. The courts interpret the laws and the Constitution.

Unlike the congressional and presidential powers, however, the judicial powers do not appear in the document. Rather, they were self-pronounced by the Supreme Court as integral to the judicial function.

Since that pronouncement in a case called Marbury v. Madison (the same James Madison who wrote the Constitution) in 1803, it has been the province of judges to decide what the laws mean and if they conform to the Constitution. In 1803, the sole province of judges had been to resolve disputes properly before them.

The Marbury case crafted the concept of judicial review — the power of courts to review and to void the official acts of the other two branches in cases properly before them — and it has been accepted ever since.

Prior to Marbury, only a few state courts had employed judicial review. The Marbury case was the first to employ it at the Supreme Court level, and thus to make it available for the use of the federal judiciary — a tool not used for the next 50 years.

Now back to the Constitution.


https://consortiumnews.com/2025/08/05/can-the-us-president-impose-taxes/