Date: February 23rd, 2026 8:12 AM
Author: queensbridge benzo
Conservatives seemed united about how the major questions doctrine worked when they were applying it to a Democratic president. They cited it to invalidate President Joe Biden’s policies — including his student loan forgiveness program, environmental policies and his responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.
But those same justices were nevertheless deeply divided Friday about its use when it came to Trump’s tariffs.
Three conservatives in dissent claimed it didn’t apply, three liberals in the majority said it wasn’t needed and two conservatives spent dozens of pages debating what, exactly, it is.
“Past critics of the major questions doctrine do not object to its application in this case,” Gorsuch, who was Trump’s first nominee to the high court yet voted against the president Friday, wrote of the three-justice liberal wing that also declared the tariffs illegal.
“Still others who have joined major questions decisions in the past dissent from today’s application of the doctrine,” he wrote of the three conservative justices who would have allowed Trump to continue his tariffs. “It is an interesting turn of events.”
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5837469&forum_id=2\u0026show=6hr#49688461)