Yes, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s Tariffs, but, do they deserve a cookie for doing the right thing?
Josh Marshall Says Absolutely Not.
Don’t Be Fooled By the Corrupt Court’s Tariff Decision
02.20.26 | 11:40 am
The depth of the Supreme Court’s corruption has forced us to find new language to describe its actions. Today’s decision, undoing Trump’s massive array of tariffs that upended the global financial system, is a case in point.
We say the Court “struck down” these tariffs. But that wording is inadequate and misleading. These tariffs were always transparently illegal. Saying the actions were “struck down” suggests at least a notional logic which the Court disagreed with, or perhaps one form of standing practice and constitutional understanding away from which the Court decided to chart another course. Neither is remotely the case. There’s no ambiguity in the law in question. Trump assumed a unilateral power to “find” a national emergency and then used this (transparently fraudulent) national emergency to exercise powers the law in question doesn’t even delegate. It is, among other things, an example of the central tenet of current conservative jurisprudence: to determine what law or constitution would require if words had no meaning. We could go into the further digression over whether Congress could “delegate” such powers, given the Constitution’s clarity on congressional authority over tariffs or whether any purported ambiguity in the law invokes yet another of the corrupt Court’s made-up doctrines. But doing so would be nothing more than ceding to the Court an authority to compel us to expend time exploring the vaporous logical intricacies of its bullshit doctrines.
It’s tempting to see this decision as some big win. And it is a win to the extent that it’s better that a rogue president be barred from illegal acts than permitted to continue them. But it’s a mistake to imagine that the Court is any less corrupt on the evidence of this decision.
This is a case where the legal merits of the President’s action were just too transparently bogus even for this Court to manage and — critically — his actions and the theories undergirding his claims to the power were, for the Corrupt majority, inconvenient. The architect of the current Court — the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo — was behind the litigation that undid the tariffs. That tells you all you need to know. In this case Trump’s claim to power was neither in the interests of the Republican Party — the Court’s chief jurisprudential interest — nor any of their anti-constitutional doctrines. So of course they tossed it out. This may sound ungenerous. It’s simple reality.
Indeed, today’s decision is actually an indictment of the Court. These tariffs have been in effect for almost a year. They have upended whole sectors of the U.S. and global economies. The fact that a president can illegally exercise such powers for so long and with such great consequences for almost a year means we’re not living in a functional constitutional system. If the Constitution allows untrammeled and dictatorial powers for almost one year, massive dictator mulligans, then there is no Constitution.
Part of the delay of this ruling is the fact that most major corporations were afraid to bring litigation because they didn’t want to go to war with the president. But that’s also an indictment of the Supreme Court’s corruption. Because they made clear early on that there was little, if any, limit they would impose on Trump’s criminality or use of government power to impose retribution on constitutionally protected speech or litigation. So that’s on the Court too. But it’s only part of the equation. The Court also allowed the tariffs to remain in place while the government appealed the appellate decision striking down the tariffs back in August. Let me repeat that: back in August, almost six months ago.
…………………………..
The Court is corrupt. There’s no future for the America republic without thoroughly reforming it of its current corruption. Today’s decision is simply one of those cases where the Constitution happens to coincide with the Court’s partial and illegitimate self-interest.
Jennifer Griffin
@JenGriffinFNC
At high stakes Pentagon meeting today Sec Hegseth gave Anthropic head Dario Amodei ultimatum to allow the Pentagon to use Anthropic’s AI model for mass domestic surveillance and kinetic autonomous operations without human oversight or face censure and be labeled “supply chain threat.”
According to a source familiar:
The meeting was cordial, not a dressing down, not a screaming match, all business.
Hegseth praised the Anthropic product but then said if by Friday Anthropic does not agree to the Pentagon’s use of the model without restrictions, then Hegseth would terminate the contract and use the Defense Production Act to force Anthropic to comply AND/OR designate Anthropic a supply chain threat and national security risk. (EDIT: Both are mutually exclusive. You can’t be a supply chain risk but also invoke the DPA to say that the country needs this product so much for national security that it will override any restrictions put in place by the company that limits govt access to the product. Both cannot be true.)
At issue is Anthropic’s two stipulations that its advanced AI model currently used in the Pentagon’s classified systems is NOT used for autonomous kinetic operations (Anthropic currently requires human oversight of autonomous operations when used to kill things for safety reasons because they don’t know how the autonomous system will react and could even endanger soldiers using the model; soldiers and others could lose control of the model and automatically start killing large groups without humans in the “kill chain.”) Second Anthropic bars its models from being used for mass domestic surveillance. Hegseth wants these restrictions lifted.
According to a source familiar with the talks, Anthropic has never objected to the use of its models for “legitimate military operations.” It also told the Hegseth it never complained to the Pentagon or Palantir about the use of its models in the Maduro raid.
1:50 PM · Feb 24, 2026
https://x.com/JenGriffinFNC/status/2026384132360605892?s=20
PatriotTakes 🇺🇸
@patriottakes
Only 20 of the 25 players from the U.S. men’s hockey team are in the photo below.
It looks like 5 of the players skipped the trip to visit Trump at the White House.
https://x.com/patriottakes/status/2026384107362726086?s=20
Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1.bsky.social
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Breaking MS NOW:
Agents with the FBI’s elite evidence response team were delayed in reaching the scene of a mass shooting at Brown U. in December because there was no FBI plane available.
Kash Patel was in south Florida at the time with one of the FBI’s two available jets.
https://bsky.app/profile/kylegriffin1.bsky.social/post/3mfmya3x6ys2d
2RawTooReal
@2RawTooReal
Gavin newsom claiming Willie brown made Kamala Harris is hella disrespectful! She’s a self made Black woman.
https://x.com/2RawTooReal/status/2026302836238135420?s=20
Leaundra Ross 🪷💙💚🏈⚾️
@LeaundraRoss
All of this.
This pissed me off.
The pause and smirk before he talked about her.
He knows exactly what he’s doing.
I think back to the time when a lot of us said this dude ain’t it and some of y’all got in your feelings.
You were wrong 😑
We were right. 🤨
https://x.com/LeaundraRoss/status/2026306690421768458?s=20
Zackory Kirk
@zackoryk
Kamala Harris was elected District Attorney of San Francisco by voters. She was elected Attorney General of California by voters. She was elected United States Senator by voters. She was elected Vice President of the United States by voters.
Plenty of male politicians have mentors, donors, and connections. No one claims they “wouldn’t exist” without those relationships.
Only women — especially Black women — get their careers framed as favors from men.
10:38 PM · Feb 23, 2026
https://x.com/zackoryk/status/2026154622373486858?s=20
Chris Murphy 🟧
@ChrisMurphyCT
The UAE secretly paid Trump $187 million. Money in his pocket personally. And then Trump overrode decades of national security objections to selling Nvidia chips to UAE because we feared UAE would send the chips to China.
Corruption has consequences.
https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/2026301461680795752?s=20
Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦
@IAPonomarenko
The U.S. administration did not send a single representative to the official commemoration events marking the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, nor did it issue a single word through its embassy in Kyiv — not even a standard diplomatic boilerplate.
This is all just tragic at this point.
6:31 AM · Feb 24, 2026
https://x.com/IAPonomarenko/status/2026273798647885834?s=20
LIPS SO PURSED
Rebekah Jones
@GeoRebekah
A group of white boys harass, taunt, abuse a black kid for almost two years.
They urinated in a cup, mixed it with apple juice and FILMED themselves making him drink it.
They shared the video online to bully him.
One of the white boys’ dads then SUES THE BLACK BOY’S MOTHER for speaking out about it and calling the boys who did it racist.
And he just won $3.2 million.
That is the America we live in.
https://x.com/GeoRebekah/status/2026049793504788525?s=20
Cristina 🇺🇸🇨🇺 🐝💜💛
@TampaWoman1965
The lefties pulling for JT are the same people who said Kamala Harris was basically the devil for bringing Liz Cheney out to try and defend democracy. You can’t make this make sense.
12:01 AM · Feb 23, 2026
https://x.com/TampaWoman1965/status/2025813224826843450?s=20
Tiff4Mahogany_44 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 NATO MEMBER
@tiff4mahogany
Black Brits are very concerned about Palestine for some reason.
Don’t y’all have a community to worry about?
You aren’t rich White leftist looking for a cause célèbre to create a personality.
11:40 AM · Feb 24, 2026
https://x.com/tiff4mahogany/status/2026351599354875980?s=20
Darksnark
16 minutes ago
First, it was the ridiculous claims about scary colored people eating dogs and cats, and now it’s been revealed that ICE Barbie went full-racist and launched bullshit accusations of cannibalism to justify Trump’s ethnic cleansing campaign.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/secy-noem-completely-made-up-story-about-cannibal-immigrant-report/vi-AA1WZ2V0?ocid=socialshare
And THIS
is why we are in the house, resting.
Liberal Librarian, Emotional Support Cuban 📚 🌿🕓
@liberallibrarian.bsky.social
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Final week of Black History Month. And a bunch of you couldn’t behave for 28 days. And then last night and today y’all go scorched earth defending Tourette’s racist. It’s truly remarkable.
3:49 PM · Feb 23, 2026
https://bsky.app/profile/liberallibrarian.bsky.social/post/3mfkmz66lyc2r
Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1
BREAKING:
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Federal court rejects GOP-led Utah Legislature’s latest attempt to put congressional map that helps Democrats on hold.
1:35 PM · Feb 23, 2026
·
37K
Views
Cassandra the Anti-Nihilist
@WriterWarrior
An estimated 600k people have died due to USAID funding cuts. Tens of thousands of people are in US detention centers INDEFINITELY.
Many thousands more will continue to die MONTHLY because the American electorate is uneducated, ill-informed, apathetic and short-sighted.
https://x.com/WriterWarrior/status/2025749161979875646?s=20
𝕂𝔼𝕄𝔼𝕀𝕌ℕ 🪷 ℝ𝔼𝕏
@yourlittldogtwo
I wanna know why Democrats are being expected to choose our candidates based on who a Republican will vote for.
https://x.com/yourlittldogtwo/status/2025919755698212926?s=20
Ebony Noor! I love garden season! ✊🏿
@darlingebony.bsky.social
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The plot thickens…John Davidson hurled the N-word THREE times at the BAFTAs last night. The production designer of “Sinners” had it hurled at her and she wrote about it on Twitter. The issue here is intent is being used to erase impact. White supremacy thinks that intent is all that matters.
https://bsky.app/profile/darlingebony.bsky.social/post/3mfjp3cqyg22e
Akiresatmidnight The OG
@AkiresHenri
Why is it so hard to have empathy for the two BLACK men who got hurled a racial slur at. Why is that so hard
7:02 PM · Feb 22, 2026
https://x.com/AkiresHenri/status/2025738114283487466?s=20
RNS
@rns.org
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Vice President JD Vance apologized to Cardinal Timothy Dolan for his accusations that Catholic bishops expressed concerns about immigration issues because they were motivated by money, the cardinal said in an interview on EWTN. religionnews.com/2026/02/20/c…
https://bsky.app/profile/rns.org/post/3mfh6zs5kxb26
The Washington Post
@washingtonpost.com
Follow
Tech companies are building data centers with their own power plants to support Silicon Valley’s AI ambitions, sparking alarm from Texas to West Virginia, with residents unhappy to learn that plants large enough to fuel major cities will sprout nearby. wapo.st/4rF7UiX
https://bsky.app/profile/washingtonpost.com/post/3mfh6y67j2q2k
Ragnarok Lobster
@eclecticbrotha1.bsky.social
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Someone needs to say the quiet part out loud: these leftists can proclaim themselves anti-PAC while seeking Bernie’s endorsement because they covet his cult of followers who will direct $27 donations wherever he tells him to.
https://bsky.app/profile/eclecticbrotha1.bsky.social/post/3mfgng4dfcs2v
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Two years ago, many of America’s largest companies began stripping diversity targets out of executive pay packages. Now, environmental measures — including goals tied to climate emissions — are beginning to face a similar fate
https://bsky.app/profile/bloomberg.com/post/3mfh6y654di23
Ian Kremer
@leadcoalition.bsky.social
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RFK Jr.’s FDA Yanks Warnings Against Fake Treatments for Autism newrepublic.com/post/206736/… via
@newrepublic.com
#FDA #autism #science #publichealth
https://bsky.app/profile/leadcoalition.bsky.social/post/3mfhhljd6fs2k
Otto English
@ottoenglish.bsky.social
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Healthcare in Greenland is publicly funded, free at the point of use, and despite geographical challenges considered very good. Healthcare costs in the USA are extortionate and responsible for 60% of all US bankruptcies. So maybe Denmark should be sending hospital ships the other way.
https://bsky.app/profile/ottoenglish.bsky.social/post/3mfgqmfcbw22u
TheRoadie.
@roadie63.bsky.social
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So Governor of Louisiana Jeff Landry, who’s state ranks dead last in health care for the past 4 years, is joining with Trump, who cut off ACA subsidies to millions, to send a medical ship to Greenland, a nation with universal health care, to “help their sick people”. Are ya fucking kidding me?
https://bsky.app/profile/roadie63.bsky.social/post/3mfgtjt5cis2m
Garrett M. Graff
@vermontgmg.bsky.social
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And yet it’s even more dumb: Both hospital ships are in dry-dock in Alabama, so they won’t be arriving anytime soon. This is a weird distraction from the Danes medically evacuating a sick US sailor from a US Navy nuclear sub yesterday 9 miles from Nuuk. What was a sub doing nine miles from Nuuk?
https://bsky.app/profile/vermontgmg.bsky.social/post/3mfgzyo4gms23
Carl Quintanilla
@carlquintanilla.bsky.social
Follow
“.. Pressed on whether Israel had a right to this land, which covers much of the modern-day Middle East, including parts of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Huckabee said ‘it would be fine if they took it all’.”
@financialtimes.com
http://www.ft.com/content/465e...
Veronica McDonald
@veronicamcdonald.bsky.social
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Kamala Harris tries to appeal to Republicans, 2024. White Democrats, progressives and leftists: KAMALA IS A PIECE OF 💩 FOR TRYING TO APPEAL TO REPUBLICANS.
James Talarico tries to appeal to Republicans, 2026. White Democrats, progressives and leftists: OMG isn’t he great? He’s appealing to MAGA!
10:40 AM · Feb 22, 2026
https://bsky.app/profile/veronicamcdonald.bsky.social/post/3mfhlbmvxbs2b
Aaron Rupar
@atrupar.com
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Q: Pope Leo cited Matthew 25:35 to critique Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. How would you respond to Pope Leo in scripture?
MIKE JOHNSON: Sovereign borders are biblical and right and just. It’s not because we hate the people on the outside. It’s because we love the people on the inside.
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mdy4emi6qi2q
Every Film Now
@everyfilmnow.bsky.social
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‘SINNERS’ is the most-awarded film from a Black director in BAFTA history with 3 wins: • Best Original Score • Best Original Screenplay • Best Supporting Actress (Wunmi Mosaku) #Sinners #RyanCoogler #BAFTAs
https://bsky.app/profile/everyfilmnow.bsky.social/post/3mfhycfjfsk2n
UH HUH
UH HUH
Author Myron J. Clifton
@deardean22.bsky.social
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Massive wealth transfer from boomers & silent generation to GenX, millennials, & Genz
Is another reason it’s virtually impossible to get leftists to go hard at their parents/grandparents
It’s also another reason it’s disingenuous to rail against “corporate dems” because that’s who holds that money
https://bsky.app/profile/deardean22.bsky.social/post/3mfih7vwv6c2y
Paula Reid
@PaulaReidCNN
CNN obtained and authenticated this video of FBI Director Patel celebrating w/US Mens Hockey team. According to FBI, Patel was in Italy for several official events. The Director had tweeted several times from the game, but this clip provides an extended view of his celebration. w/
@kpolantz
https://x.com/PaulaReidCNN/status/2025895799423414422?s=20
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊