The Supreme Court’s Tariff Ruling Shows Conservativism at Work: Chief Justice John Roberts’s long campaign against unilateral executive control of the economy continues—regardless of who’s in the White House. (Judge Glock, Feb 20 2026, City Journal)
For the past year, the liberal commentariat has decried the Supreme Court for being just an adjunct of the Trump administration. The Brennan Center for Justice argued that, despite the nation’s “democratic backsliding” under Trump, the Court “keeps ruling in Trump’s favor.” Noted legal scholar Kate Shaw said on a New York Times podcast that the Court’s conservatives “really are just partisan justices in support of Donald Trump.” Shaw and others on the Left have advocated for radical court reform, which for some included court-packing, to force it to support their version of American democracy.
The argument that the Supreme Court kowtowed to whatever President Trump wanted was foolish before, and became insupportable after, Friday’s announcement of the decision in Learning Resources v. Trump, which overturned the most important part of Trump’s tariffs policy.