Wondering what the "Tariff Case" (Learning Resources vs Trump) is all about? Can sum it up in one word...

"regulate". Yup, that's about it.  What is the meaning of "regulate" in the context of the IEEP, Article 1 taxing authority (Section 8 enumerated power) and Article 2 Presidential power to conduct foreign policy. 

The image below is the relevant part of the "IEEP.  The definition of "regulate" and whether it includes the authority for the President to levy tariffs (read that "a tax") is at the heart of a major part of the issue.  

Learning Resources says the IEEP does not use the word/concept "Tariff", so there is no authority to do so. Their claim is that the IEEP was an attempt to limit Presidential power in this area.

The Trump Administration says the word "regulate" implies explicitly the authority to levy tariffs, given that the other prescriptive verbs that follow regulate don't specifically say "quotas," but they, historically, have been used to impose such quotas on foreign goods.

I look forward to attending this oral argument next week at the US Supreme Court! 

Say Hello to my fellow 65 year olds. You are going to see a lot of us for the next 30 years...

While the graphic below is physically hard to read (it seems they could have made the differences a little more stark), the lesson it teaches is clear:  Demographics are and will be, for a long time, a large driver of the Federal Budget (Social Security/Medicare, etc.) 

I turned 65 this year, so you can see I am at the forefront of the "gray tsunami" that will continue to build and crest over the next 30 years.  This will have a continued impact on the Federal Budget and social policy for at least another generation.

From The Congressional Budget Office, "The Long-Term Budget Outlook: 2025 to 2055"

The share of the population age 65 or older is projected to increase over the coming decades, continuing a long-standing trend (see Figure 3-2). From 2015 to 2024, that share rose from 14.4 percent to 17.9 percent, driven mainly by the aging of members of the large baby boom generation that was born between 1946 and 1964. The percentage of the population age 65 or older continues to increase in CBO’s projections, rising from 18.3 percent in 2025 to 21.2 percent in 2035 and 23.4 percent in 2055.

I won the lottery! Well, not THAT one. but The Supreme Court seat lottery.

I was just notified that I "won" a guaranteed seat (through the Supreme Court pilot program to allocate public seats) to observe the oral argument in the case of "Learning Resources vs Trump" on Wednesday, November 5.  The soon-to-be famous/infamous "tariff case".  

I have been to Washington, DC, before, but not to the Supreme Court to even visit.

This is a "bucket list" item for me, so I am happy to have the chance to witness the discussion on an important case.

As with many cases that have political and economic impact, I suspect they scheduled this one as the only one that day because it will be a lengthy oral argument.

I guess I will get my "lottery payment", and then some, in history and drama.

Here is the cert petition from Learning Resources

Here is the response to the cert petition from the Government (Trump's position)

  

Birthright Citizenship: Reaching back into legal history. Blackstone edition...

This recent scholarship on the issue of Birthright Citizenship is worth a read if you are interested in the topic.  It errs (with historical evidence) on the side that Birthright Citizenship is a thing and is both explicit/implied (both can be true) in the 14th Amendment.

Source:  Divided Argument

Without Domicile or Allegiance: Gypsies and Birthright Citizenship, by Gerard Magliocca: “This Essay argues that the invocations of gypsies (or Roma) during the debates on the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment drew on Blackstone’s discussion of them in his Commentaries and means that legal immigration status, domicile, and allegiance are not requirements for birth citizenship in the United States.” Another important entry in defense of the (correct) conventional wisdom on birthright citizenship.