00:00For more on this, I'm joined on set by our international affairs commentator, Douglas
00:04Herbert.
00:05So, Doug, why is this decision being seen as so significant?
00:10Because it's significant in the sense that, look, this is a Supreme Court of the United
00:13States that for many Americans was really being seen now as beholden, paying fealty
00:20to Donald Trump.
00:20And I say that because it wasn't just a conservative majority on the court.
00:24It was a conservative supermajority, six conservatives, three liberals.
00:30And those six conservatives, three of them were Trump appointed.
00:34There had been more than just a little, there had been more than some justification for that
00:38impression that this was a Trump beholden court in the sense that one of its first acts back
00:43in 2024 was basically, 2025, was to grant Trump broad immunity from prosecutions in actions
00:51in his official exercise of the presidency.
00:54That is broad latitude from any fear being prosecuted for things, say, trying to subvert
00:59an election.
01:00So that was seen, that green lighting of Trump's aggressive agenda and Trump's, let's just say
01:05it, his outright dodging of accountability and skirting of prosecution, that was green
01:11lighted by the Supreme Court.
01:12They also have tended to, I say tended, there have been exceptions, to green light his aggressive
01:18policies.
01:18Let's use the word aggressive policies on immigration, his immigration crackdown.
01:22And in a whole number of other areas.
01:24So this is a rare, I won't call it rebuke, but what I will say, it is a rare instance
01:30of
01:30the Supreme Court, in a sense, doing what the founding fathers wanted and enshrined in
01:36its function.
01:36And that is being one of the powers of government, the branches of government, that is a check
01:42on executive authority, i.e.
01:43a check on the president.
01:45So literally by rejecting and as illegal a policy that had become sort of the defining
01:53pillar of Donald Trump's presidency, not just of economic policy, but really of his foreign
01:57policy, a pillar, a tariff pillar that he had used as a blunt weapon to, let's just say
02:02it, coerce and bully countries around the world, including a lot of his allies, supposed
02:07allies, the fact that they were willing to do that is perhaps a signal, perhaps a signal
02:12that this is not a Supreme Court that is not willing to, at least at some instances, at
02:16some junctures, on some issues, even some big ones such as this, willing to exercise
02:21its independence.
02:23And now, you know, the ruling's been made, but we are looking at what's the practical
02:28impact.
02:29I mean, what can we expect in the U.S. and abroad?
02:31Yeah.
02:31Well, right now, the practical impact, let's start on the domestic front.
02:35The domestic front, a lot of people are standing there wondering, well, does this mean that
02:38companies, governments, citizens are now going to sue to get their money back?
02:41Because let's remember, these Trump tariffs, Trump could call them what they were.
02:45They were essentially an attacks on American importers, American companies, and on American
02:50consumers, i.e.
02:51taxpayers.
02:52So you could almost see these tariffs in a way as robbing American people of billions of
02:58dollars, in the sense that they were forced to pay higher prices for a vast array of products.
03:04So yeah, you could see it as sanctioned by Congress, in a sense, of highway robbery of
03:10the American citizen.
03:12The impact at home could be a lot if you actually have big court battles shaping up and companies
03:17seeking to be paid back.
03:18But that could take months and years, and it's not going to happen tomorrow.
03:22As far as the impact in terms of change tariffs, a lot of countries are just factoring in the fact
03:27that this has – the Supreme Court may have had this ruling and that, yes, it may have
03:32come down hard on this pillar of Trump's policy, economic, and foreign.
03:35It doesn't mean that Trump's approach to governance and Trump's approach to the presidency
03:40and his entire mindset and philosophy, governing philosophy, is changing.
03:44It is exactly the same.
03:45And as we've heard in Donald Trump's own words, his press conference, he is right out
03:49of the get-go.
03:50He is finding other ways to do what we would call an end run around the Supreme Court decision.
03:55He's not minimizing it.
03:56He knows that it's a big blow, if not a devastating blow, to one of the pillars of his policy.
04:00But he's doing an end run around it, and he's right back out of the starting blots.
04:04Tariffs will remain high, and a lot of countries are just factoring that in.
04:08They don't want to get too ebullient, and they don't want to get too giddy about this decision.
04:13So uncertainty continues.
04:14Thank you, Douglas.
04:15That's our international affairs commentator, Douglas Herbert.
04:18Thank you, Douglas.
04:18Thank you, Douglas.
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