Matt Levine, Columnist

The Tariffs Are Still Illegal

Also reinsurance, deal-contingent hedges and a commercial paper revival.

September 2, 2025 at 5:31 PM UTC

Matt Levine is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A former investment banker at Goldman Sachs, he was a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; a clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit; and an editor of Dealbreaker.

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Here is the opinion. We have talked about this case a few times, including when it was filed and when the lower court struck down the tariffs, and it has always struck me as quite straightforward. The United States has a Constitution, and the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to impose tariffs. Trump made up his own tariffs without any input from Congress, so they are unconstitutional.