‘Really?!’ Anderson Cooper Stunned After Being Told Trump Will ‘Have To Give All the Money Back’ if SCOTUS Strikes Down Tariffs

COOPER: What is the fundamental disagreement?

TOOBIN: It’s actually very simple. Those who oppose tariffs say they are taxes. These are ways the government raises money. According to Article 1 of the Constitution, only Congress can pass taxes. The president cannot impose taxes this way. And this argument has made great progress.

COOPER: Does it matter if the president is there to tell you how much money has been raised?

TOOBIN: Technically probably not. But judges live in the real world and they know it. The attorney general tried to argue that not only are tariffs part of national security, part of international relations, something the president is responsible for, but money is money. And they reminded us every time that this fact works like a tax and there is nothing the president can do unilaterally.

COOPER: This was done urgently. How quickly can a real decision happen?

TOOBIN: Usually in major cases it doesn’t happen until June, but since this is such a moving target and the tariffs are currently in place, I expect a decision probably before the end of the year.

And the real complication is that if they decide against the tariffs, they will have to give all the money back.

COOPER: Really?

TOOBIN: Yes and HE It becomes a tremendous logistical problem and a financial problem for the United States because, as the president said, it has created a tremendous amount of money. This was an issue that arose in oral argument. But if they actually decide against the president, that’s going to be a huge problem.

COOPER: Can they decide, you can’t but you don’t have to give the money back?

TOOBIN: Yes, they can, because they’re the Supreme Court. They can do whatever they want. And I think, although it would be difficult to justify legally, it would be much simpler logistically.

COOPER: So is there likely to be a swing vote?

TOOBIN: You know, the only judge who was completely sympathetic to President Trump was Brett Kavanaugh. John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch appeared especially: Amy [Coney] Barrett. You know, they might vote for Trump again, but they certainly didn’t look like that today.