Busy day yesterday, so all I have this morning is a brief follow-up on last week’s post about the decision by an appeals court to uphold the Court of Trade’s ruling that most of Trump’s tariffs are illegal — which they clearly are.
Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, has argued that this ruling should not stand because it would embarrass the United States. (Actually, it would mainly embarrass Bessent and his boss.) As I noted, this is a novel legal principle: It’s OK to do illegal things when obeying the law would be embarrassing. What I failed to note is the sheer chutzpah of the argument.
