Harry Blain is an assistant professor of political science at California State University, Sacramento, where he teaches courses on constitutional rights and liberties.
The Supreme Court’s rejection of Donald Trump’s tariffs will likely have little effect on the administration’s tariff regime. It will, however, further empower the conservative legal movement and its favorite deregulatory tool.
Progressives celebrating the Supreme Court’s anticipated ruling against Donald Trump’s tariffs risk encouraging the consolidation of a dangerous legal doctrine that will be used to defeat their own agenda for decades to come.
The right-wing Supreme Court continued to chip away at government agencies and regulations this term. Though the decisions present risks to some important policies, the attack on executive power need not jeopardize the Left’s major initiatives.
The “major questions doctrine,” cited to invalidate student loan forgiveness, empowers the conservative Supreme Court to veto any executive action with broad social impact. Its goal is to undermine the government’s ability function and aid average people.
Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac collaborated with the fascist regime in Croatia, whose atrocities shocked even the Nazis. The US Congress then spent years attempting to free him in the name of anti-communism.
After Dobbs, liberals are warning of a Supreme Court assault on personal liberties like sexual autonomy, contraception, and even interracial marriage. But the court actually has its sights on social and labor protections — and progressives are unprepared.