Older tabs we're missing, spending the hours reminiscing ...
The tariff ruling may turn out to have a silver lining in 8 months.
— Shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) February 20, 2026
Because they put upward price pressure on imported goods, removing them will do the opposite.
At the same time, targeted tariffs for trade/foreign policy purposes can be reimposed.
Trade agreements that were…
Trade agreements that were compelled by tariffs remain in place. With the US economy still atop the world in terms of productivity and wealth creation, companies that have announced investments in U.S. based manufacturing are not likely to change their minds.
The coercive benefit of the tariffs over the past year have been realized. To the extent they have hampered economic growth they are now going to evaporate.
Ed: Actually, I suspect that the White House will simply shift these tariffs to their other options in the statutes. Most of them are low enough to fit within them, although other limitations and prerequisites apply. But yes, the elimination of those tariffs would likely have a stimulus effect, and perhaps a small improvement on inflation.
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Dan McLoughlin at NRO: The Court didn’t rule that presidents could never use tariffs for regulatory purposes — only that Congress would first need to give the president that power. Has the Court foreclosed Trump from using tariffs? Not at all, but neither did it join Kavanaugh in drawing up a roadmap for how to do so, leaving Trump free to try but without advisory guidance from the Court: Kavanaugh “surmises that the President could impose ‘most if not all’ of the tariffs at issue under statutes other than IEEPA. . . . The cited statutes contain various combinations of procedural prerequisites, required agency determinations, and limits on the duration, amount, and scope of the tariffs they authorize. . . . We do not speculate on hypothetical cases not before us.”
Of course, any future tariffs will be prospective only. Trump may yet be able to defend agreements he made with other countries under the hammer of IEEPA. But his tariff regime now goes back to the drawing board.
Ed: The administration could pursue both options simultaneously – shifting authorities to cover the same tariffs while asking Congress to offer the authority, perhaps for a limited time. I doubt it would work; even some Republicans had chafed at Trump's use of tariffs. However, that is what our constitutional system of government requires.
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From Gorsuch concurrence. pic.twitter.com/m8zom2pcHA
— Alex Tabarrok (@ATabarrok) February 20, 2026
Ed: I'd be more appreciative if Congress would actually do its job, especially on basic functions like budgeting. Nonetheless, Gorsuch is entirely correct.
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Newsmax: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Friday defended President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, arguing they strengthened U.S. leverage even as the Supreme Court struck down a key legal rationale. ...
In a post on social media, Johnson wrote: "No one can deny that the President's use of tariffs has brought in billions of dollars and created immense leverage for America's trade strategy and for securing strong, reciprocal America-first trade agreements with countries that had been taking advantage of American workers for decades."
He added: "Congress and the Administration will determine the best path forward in the coming weeks."
Ed: This reminds us that there are two parts of this issue: policy and legality. The Supreme Court only ruled on the latter. Many disagree on the policy itself, and I'm among the skeptics, but tariffs have undeniably given Trump significant leverage in foreign policy over the past year. However, the best path on both is exactly what Johnson promises here – that Congress and the administration work together on both.
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.@POTUS on Supreme Court tariff ruling: "Other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected." @JenningsShow pic.twitter.com/Giapg8KkFg
— Salem News Channel (@WatchSalemNews) February 20, 2026
Ed: Trump and Scott Bessent have been talking about their Plan B options almost ever since launching the tariffs. That should speak to their understanding that the IEEPA claims were risky from the beginning. They chose that path to test it, because it offered the greatest range of options. Their other options are more restrictive but put tariffs on firmer statutory ground.
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WSJ: The husband of embattled Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is under investigation for an alleged sexual assault that took place at Labor Department headquarters in December, according to Washington, D.C., police.
The incident was reported to Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department last month, according to a police report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, and comes as the labor secretary herself faces an internal inquiry into her conduct in office, including allegations of misused funds and an improper relationship with a member of her security team. She has denied them.
The sexual-assault allegation related to her husband emerged during interviews that took place during that internal inquiry, which is being led by the department’s inspector general, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ed: According to the WSJ, Shawn DeRemer allegedly groped a Labor Dept employee, who then filed a complaint, and at least one other employee has since come forward with a similar allegation. That apparently led DeRemer getting banned from the DoL office and also to get disinvited from the premier of the documentary "Melania." One has to wonder why Lori Chavez-DeRemer is still around, especially with the earlier allegations about her behavior. It might be a good time to make some changes.
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Jasmine Crockett says Democrats’ attacks on her are racially motivated:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 20, 2026
“The thing that is not normal is for me to be attacked from the Left… I look at this specifically as a civil rights lawyer and I see when they’re sending out ads and they’re darkening my skin.” pic.twitter.com/6Uwj1ckxSH
Ed: Quelle surprise. One-note demagogue plays one note. Film at 11. Well, 10, in the case of the Final Word.
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Butler Mayor Wesley Dingus is facing two counts of voyeurism after he was allegedly caught on camera sniffing a teen girl’s underwear, records show.
On Jan. 13, a Richland County Sheriff’s Office sergeant was contacted by the Richland County Children’s Services after the office was “sent a video showing an adult male going through [a child’s] bedroom, picking up her underwear and smelling it,” the report read.
The next day, a Richland County Sheriff’s deputy and a Richland County Children’s Services representative went to the victim’s high school to speak with her about the reported incident.
According to the report, she told the officials she was suspicious that Dingus had been going into her bedroom and purchased a small video camera to set up there.
Ed: What is it with mayors these days? First Tiffany Henyard, now this. Maybe Vodkapundit can do a new weekly series called Mayors Gone Wild in addition to his Florida Man Friday VIP series.
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"Leave our taxes alone!!!"
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 20, 2026
NY Democrats are not happy with the new plan by Mayor Mamdani to raise taxes on middle class: pic.twitter.com/NUC5RYx7MF
Ed: Who's worse – Dingus or Mamdani? It looks like Democrats may be wondering about that these days.
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Daily Signal: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Trump administration to block a California law aimed at forcing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to remove masks. ...
The 9th Circuit issued a full stay to block the No Secret Police Act, signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to force the unmasking of federal law enforcement, based on the supremacy clause.
Ed: There's not much to say about this ruling except that it's predictable. States cannot set the terms under which the federal government enforces federal law. That's been true since Appomattox, it's been true since Orval Faubus and George Wallace, and it's still true today.
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"Ontario’s euthanasia regulators have tracked 428 cases of possible criminal violations — and not referred a single case to law enforcement, say leaked documents." https://t.co/WjBF0v2IKk via @tnajournal
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) February 19, 2026
Ed: That's because the euthanasia program is performing as desired ... by killing as many Canadians as possible. Each case saves the single-payer health-care system many thousands of dollars.
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Free Beacon: Iran has spent the past several months fortifying two nuclear sites against an aerial strike and excavating areas the United States and Israel destroyed last June, according to recent satellite imagery analyzed by the Institute for Science and International Security.
The Islamic Republic has been burying its new Taleghan 2 facility at its Parchin military complex, under construction since May 2025, since at least September 2025. The activity has continued through February, with crews "visibly pouring fresh concrete" around the area and piling soil on top of a structure that likely contains sensitive equipment. Similar efforts are underway at the Esfahan nuclear complex, which the United States and Israel badly damaged in their strikes against the regime's nuclear program last year. Satellite photos from the end of January show the Islamic Republic "re-burying the southernmost and the middle entrances with soil."
The movement around these locations suggests that Iran is making preparations for another conflict with the United States and seeking to protect whatever remains of its nuclear sites after the U.S.-Israeli campaign last year. The evidence also indicates that Tehran's hardline regime has not scaled back its nuclear pursuits, defying President Donald Trump's statement that a good deal with Iran would mean "no nuclear weapons, no missiles."
Ed: That's not surprising, but I suspect that the Iranian regime knows it's a largely futile effort. We may revisit those sites in any new military action, but we'll take aim first at ballistic missile launchers and IRGC command facilities controlling them.
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You're not a "punching bag," just a godless fifth-columnist traitor kowtowing to godless Maoists who've imprisoned a billion men in a squalid ideological opium den. https://t.co/dLiZqVNMTv
— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) February 20, 2026
Ed: I'm sure Gu appreciates the distinction.
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I'm telling you, conservatives, a court that reins in executive power and limits the lawmaking in the agencies and defers to Congress is good for us long term. It really puts a wrench in the progressive fever dreams of expanding the state.
— Daniel Darling (@dandarling) February 20, 2026
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