To support its position in the Supreme Court case V.O.S. SELECTIONS INC vs. TRUMP, the U.S. government has made fantastical claims regarding the president’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs on imports into the United States—and regarding the world that existed before IEEPA tariffs were deployed. In particular, the government has repeatedly alleged that curtailing the president’s authority to implement tariffs under IEEPA—and invalidating those tariffs already imposed—would devastate the U.S. economy, the federal government’s fiscal position, and the president’s ability to effectuate trade and foreign policy, while imposing an unbearable burden upon the government to refund collected duties and foreign investments.

This brief is filed by Cato Institute scholars as amici in the case. It demonstrates that the government’s claims are inaccurate—and often hysterically so. Instead, the facts show that the tariff authority claimed by the president under IEEPA is not essential for (1) negotiating and finalizing U.S. trade agreements; (2) imposing reciprocal tariffs upon trading partners—unlike the IEEPA tariffs; (3) conducting U.S. foreign policy; (4) reversing the nation’s fiscal trajectory; (5) preventing a U.S. economic collapse; (6) blocking foreign government retaliation against U.S. trade and investment; or (7) restoring American manufacturing and the defense industrial base. The record further shows that, again contrary to the government’s claims, (8) IEEPA tariff refunds need not be administratively difficult; (9) the government is under no obligation to repay foreign investment commitments; and (10) the IEEPA tariffs are rewriting U.S. trade law without Congress.

Amici firmly believe that the Court’s resolution of the questions presented should be based on U.S. statutory and constitutional law rather than the possible effects of the Court’s decision. Nevertheless, should the Court consider the government’s extralegal doomsaying, it can rest assured knowing that the sky does not fall in a world without IEEPA tariffs.