United States

  • Ticketmaster, Antitrust, and the Sound of a Watchdog Being Declawed

    ByHarlan Quill

    I was sitting in a library with carpet that smells like 1987 and democracy, reading a court docket the way other people scroll concert clips. Same thumb motion, less screaming. In the next room, a retiree was arguing with a copier. In Washington, the copier argues back, and it bills by the hour.

    Because the hottest ticket in America right now is not a stadium tour. It is the U.S. government trying to prove that Live Nation and Ticketmaster turned live entertainment into a company town, right as the government’s own antitrust shop starts wobbling like a folding chair at a town hall.

    What the case is, in plain English

    The Justice Department sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2024, alongside dozens of states. The allegation: the company unlawfully maintained monopolies across key parts of the live concert business, using tactics like exclusive dealing and tying to keep venues and artists in line. On paper, the government has sought structural relief, including divestiture of Ticketmaster.

    The case is now barreling toward trial in federal court in New York. Jury selection is scheduled for March 2, 2026. Live Nation has fought to narrow or knock out the claims before a jury hears them, and a federal judge has allowed major parts of the case to proceed, even while trimming some theories.

    Why the timing sets off alarms

    The top political appointee running DOJ Antitrust, Gail Slater, left the job this month after reported clashes inside the department over enforcement direction and pace. DOJ leadership shifted, interim leadership shifted, and the public is left guessing whether the referee is still willing to call fouls when the home team has excellent lobbyists.

    The Paine test: liberty or power?

    A functioning antitrust division is not a luxury. It is one of the few tools the public has to stop private gatekeepers from turning markets into toll roads. If you want “liberty” in plain clothes, start with the liberty to compete: venues choosing vendors without fear, artists routing tours without being steered, and fans buying tickets without a market-power obstacle course.

    The Orwell check: listen for euphemisms

    In antitrust land, the polite words matter. Enforcement becomes “deal certainty.” Scrutiny becomes “delay.” Oversight becomes “red tape.” And “move faster” can quietly translate into “go softer.” Courts are slow. Evidence is slow. The law is not DoorDash.

    The liberty ledger and the tradeoff

    If DOJ tries this case on the merits, consumers and smaller competitors gain a chance at real oxygen, and artists and venues gain options. If enforcement can be outlasted through staffing churn and inside baseball, the already powerful gain time and leverage, and the public loses civic trust.

    Guardrails before this becomes a civics cautionary tale

    • Sunlight: plain-English clarity on remedies and why they fix the harm.
    • Real oversight: records on contacts, recusals, and decision-making.
    • Continuity: deterrence requires the cop on the beat to stay on the beat.
    • Federalism as backstop: states keep leverage from collapsing when federal enforcement wobbles.

    Courts will do their part in March. The question is whether the executive branch will let the system function when the political cost rises and the lobbying pressure spikes.

  • Live Nation Wants a Delay. Of Course It Does.

    ByJustin Jest

    The coffee is burnt, the courthouse air is too clean, and my inbox is full of glossy statements that smell like boardroom glass and attorney cologne.

    On Sunday, Live Nation and Ticketmaster asked a federal judge to delay their antitrust trial, scheduled to begin with jury selection on March 2, 2026 in Manhattan. They want an interlocutory appeal. Translation: pull the fire alarm right when the auditors step into the room.

    If you have ever tried to buy a concert ticket and watched your dignity evaporate at the fees screen, you already understand the stakes. This is not just about music. It is about monopoly muscle, political capture, and the way wealthy defendants keep finding extra stairwells out of accountability.

    What they filed, and why the timing is the point

    The Department of Justice and a coalition of states sued Live Nation in May 2024, alleging the company unlawfully maintained monopoly power in parts of live entertainment, especially primary ticketing at major venues. The complaint also points to alleged pressure tactics tied to Live Nation-controlled assets.

    Last week, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian rejected a broad effort to toss the case. Some claims were narrowed, but core theories tied to ticketing and amphitheater-related conduct survived and the March 2 trial date stayed in place.

    Now comes the time-out request. Live Nation argues the Second Circuit should immediately review two legal questions that could, in the company’s view, substantially narrow the trial. And therefore, they say, the whole proceeding should be stayed while that appeal plays out.

    I have seen this movie. It is always streaming. The villain’s special effect is delay.

    Translation: “clarifying legal issues” means “keep the record closed”

    Translation: when a giant says the trial might be “unnecessary,” what they mean is the testimony is necessary, the discovery is necessary, and the public record is extremely necessary.

    Interlocutory appeals exist for a reason. In practice, they also operate like a premium service for defendants with enough money to keep multiple law firms humming and a crisis-PR shop answering calls before they ring.

    And the motion lands during a jittery moment for antitrust enforcement. Earlier this month, the DOJ’s top antitrust official, Gail Slater, resigned amid internal tensions over enforcement direction, with reporting raising concerns about interference and lobbying pressure around big cases.

    Here is the mechanism: monopoly is a chain of leverage

    Here is the mechanism: Live Nation’s power is not just “Ticketmaster sells tickets.” It is that live events have choke points. Control enough of them and you do not have to compete on price or service. You just make alternatives too painful.

    Coverage of the ruling describes surviving theories that focus on conduct that turns business relationships into hostage situations: tying and coercive leverage connected to large amphitheaters and the market for primary ticketing services at major venues.

    Follow the money: delay keeps the tollbooth open

    Follow the money: every month of delay is another month the tollbooth stays open.

    This case is about whether a dominant firm used its position to keep competitors from meaningfully challenging the machine. A postponed trial is not neutral. While courts move at the speed of marble, the market moves at the speed of exclusivity and consolidated leverage. The longer the trial slips, the longer the status quo prints receipts.

    The DOJ case page lists a wide coalition of plaintiff states. That matters, because federal resolve can wobble when the Washington hallway fills with lobbyists. States, at least, can act like union stewards holding the line.

    The quiet part: they want court to feel optional

    The quiet part: the powerful want the legal system to feel like a subscription tier.

    For regular people, court is a cliff. For monopolies, court is a project plan: file, appeal, stay, narrow, drag it past the next news cycle. But trials force the incentives into daylight. They make executives answer questions without the PR fog machine.

    If Live Nation wants a delay, the public should demand the opposite: speed, sunlight, and consequences. Who benefits when the trial clock stops?

  • FedEx Wants Its Tariff Money Back. You Want Your Groceries Back.

    ByJustin Jest

    The courthouse air still smells like disinfectant and power, the kind that makes your coffee taste like pennies. My phone buzzes with market jitters, PR fog, and the familiar Washington rhythm: the machine breaks, and the beneficiaries sprint to the front to invoice the wreckage.

    This week, FedEx sued the U.S. government seeking a refund of Trump-era tariffs after the Supreme Court ruled those emergency tariffs illegal. Let it land. A logistics giant is asking a court to hand back money it paid because the White House tried to run Congress’s taxing power through an emergency-powers paper shredder.

    What happened: a ruling, then the refund rush

    On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the president to impose sweeping tariffs. Translation: Congress taxes. Presidents do not. Not by vibes. Not by “emergency” declarations treated like a blank check.

    The Court did not wrap up the refund question in a neat bow. So the next act is predictable: companies are lining up with lawyers, spreadsheets, and duty-payment receipts to claw back what they paid under a now-invalidated program.

    FedEx filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade, naming Customs and Border Protection and the United States. And it is not alone. AP reports more than 1,000 firms are seeking refunds, including Costco and Revlon.

    Meanwhile, Trump is already threatening new tariffs under different legal authorities. Different statute, same impulse: if one lever snaps, grab another.

    Translation: This is a tax. They sold it as a flag.

    Translation: tariffs are taxes paid at the border by importers. Then the importer does what corporations do as naturally as breathing: push the cost down the chain until it lands in your cart, on your invoice, or in your boss’s excuse for why raises are “not in the budget.”

    So when the Court says the president cannot do this through IEEPA, it is not just a civics lecture. It is the judiciary yanking the steering wheel away from an executive branch trying to govern by emergency shortcut.

    Here is the mechanism: Emergency powers as a tariff vending machine

    Here is the mechanism: the administration tried to use IEEPA, built for sanctions and emergency economic controls, as an all-purpose tariff machine. The Supreme Court said that reading would massively expand presidential power. So now comes the pivot: talk up other authorities, float new rates, keep the uncertainty alive.

    Follow the money: refunds for giants, inflation for everyone else

    Follow the money: AP describes more than $133 billion collected under the now-invalidated program. That is the mountain companies want returned.

    Who does not have a clean receipt? You. You paid in higher prices and higher input costs, not as a named line item to Customs. So corporations get the courthouse runway, and regular people get a shrug and a “market forces” sermon.

    The quiet part: tariffs are a political prop and a corporate pass-through. Politicians perform toughness; companies convert policy into pricing power. FedEx is suing because the system trains them to monetize rules and litigate the rest.

    If we want off this rigged loop, the accountability tools are boring on purpose: Congress tightening tariff authority and emergency powers, auditors and inspectors general tracking collections and refunds, courts demanding transparency, unions and consumer groups pressuring companies to pass savings forward, and elections that punish lawmakers who let “emergency” become a standing form of government.

  • Consumer Confidence Tick Up, But the Checkout Line Still Feels Like a Gut Check

    ByBrick Tungsten

    There is a special kind of silence at the grocery checkout right before the total pops up. It is not just math. It is mood. And America’s mood, according to the latest consumer confidence data, is trying to lift its head while the bills keep pressing down.

    Conference Board: confidence rises to 91.2, but expectations stay shaky

    The Conference Board reported that its Consumer Confidence Index in February rose to 91.2, up from an upwardly revised 89.0 in January. That is a move in the right direction, but it is not a parade.

    Under the hood, the mixed signals get louder. The Present Situation Index slipped to 120.0 from January, while the Expectations Index climbed to 72.0. The release notes the survey cutoff was February 17, 2026, meaning this is a snapshot of how people felt while staring at the same familiar stack of costs.

    And here is the part that keeps the champagne corked: 72.0 is still below 80, a level the Conference Board has long flagged as a recession-warning zone. The AP noted the Expectations Index has remained below that threshold for the 13th straight month. That is not “all clear.” That is the check-engine light staying on.

    The jobs question: “plentiful” rises, but so does “hard to get”

    The most human part of the report is the labor read. The share of consumers saying jobs are “plentiful” rose to 28.0% from 25.8% in January. That is tangible optimism.

    But the other side moved too: the share saying jobs are “hard to get” increased to 20.6% from 19.0%. That is the push-pull families feel in real time, where opportunity can exist and anxiety can still grow in the same week.

    What it means: confidence is not a press release

    Yes, confidence ticked up. Take the win. But the expectations number is the tell: people are not ready to bet big on tomorrow. The Conference Board also noted that consumer spending intentions are still tilted toward necessities and cheaper thrills, not large, expensive commitments.

    So the story is simple: Americans are resilient, but cautious. You can publish an index, but you cannot argue with the way a household budget feels when the total hits the screen.

  • The Confidence Index Rose. Your Rent Did Not Get the Memo.

    ByHarlan Quill

    I have read enough government press releases in fluorescent-lit libraries to recognize a soothing noun when it strolls in. The same vibe hits a town hall right before someone says the budget is tight but the consultants are essential. Today’s soothing noun is confidence. The economy, we’re told, is feeling better. A survey says so, therefore: vibes up.

    Conference Board: consumer confidence edges up to 91.2

    The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 91.2 in February, up from a revised 89.0 in January. The Present Situation Index slipped to 120.0, while the Expectations Index jumped to 72.0.

    The Conference Board also notes that consumers still expect interest rates to stay higher over the next 12 months, and that write-in comments remain fixated on prices, inflation, and the cost of goods, with trade and politics rising as mentions too.

    So yes, the headline moved in a nicer direction. But the guts of the report read like a household that has stopped hyperventilating and started doing math. Not giddy. Not carefree. Just marginally less bleak.

    AP’s write-up adds a key caution label: the Expectations Index is still below 80, a recession-warning threshold it notes, and it has been under that line for more than a year. Not panic. More like a long, quiet flinch.

    The Orwell check: “confidence” is not a paycheck

    Orwell loved a harmless-sounding word that does rough work. “Confidence” is one of those. It sounds personal, like the fix is posture and positive thinking. In practice, it often means something colder: whether people will keep spending, investors will keep lending, employers will keep hiring. Whether the system will keep humming without changing any of its wiring.

    That wiring includes interest rates. The Federal Reserve, as of its late January decision, has operated with a federal funds target range of 3-1/2 to 3-3/4 percent. A tool, not a moral statement. But it hits different hands differently. The Conference Board data says consumers are hearing the “higher for longer” signal and pricing it into their outlook. That is not psychology. That is survival.

    The tradeoff: price stability vs. breathing room

    Fighting inflation is necessary, and it is not free. Higher rates can cool inflation by slowing demand. They can also raise the cost of borrowing for families and freeze whole parts of the economy, especially housing and small business financing, into slow-motion gridlock.

    You can see that tension in the report’s split personality: expectations improved, but views of current conditions dipped. Tomorrow might be better. Today’s bills still arrive at today’s prices.

    The liberty ledger and the Paine test

    My civil-liberties brain asks the same question even here: who gets more freedom, and who gets less? People with cash can earn more on safer savings. Institutions that lend at higher rates can do fine. People living on the monthly margin get fenced in: car loans, revolving credit cards, first-home math.

    Paine’s version is simpler: do our decisions spread liberty outward or concentrate power upward? The Fed has a hard job and independence matters, but independence is not immunity from scrutiny. Confidence at 91.2 is fine. Expectations at 72 says something sharper: we are coping, not coasting.

    Guardrails, not pep talks

    If leaders want more than a modest bounce in sentiment, they should stop treating the public like a focus group and start treating them like owners of the republic. That means congressional oversight that asks real questions about affordability, the Fed explaining in plain English what evidence would change its path, and policy that increases supply where Americans are trapped, especially housing.

    And for the rest of us: call your representatives, show up at local housing and zoning meetings, read the audits, support watchdogs, and vote like you understand that economic freedom is still freedom. If confidence is up but expectations are still stuck in the basement, who exactly is the recovery for?

  • DOJ v. New Jersey: When a State Tries to Put a Padlock on Federal Law

    ByBrick Tungsten

    You can smell a federalism fight the way you smell charcoal: sharp, hot, and unmistakable. This one lit up fast, because it is not just a policy dispute. It is a question of who gets to set the rules when federal law meets state-controlled space.

    DOJ sues New Jersey over Executive Order No. 12 limiting ICE on state property

    The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against New Jersey and Gov. Mikie Sherrill over Executive Order No. 12, arguing the state is interfering with federal immigration enforcement. DOJ says the order blocks ICE and other federal immigration officials from making arrests inside nonpublic areas of state property, including state correctional facilities.

    New Jersey has framed the order as a safety-and-rights measure. The state’s public description emphasizes that ICE should not use state property as a launchpad for operations, that access to nonpublic areas should require a judicial warrant, and that the state is also rolling out tools such as a know-your-rights website and a reporting portal where residents can upload interactions with ICE.

    The real argument: access rules or outcome-shaping?

    Here is the hinge: a state can say, “These are our facilities, and these areas are nonpublic.” But DOJ’s position is essentially that New Jersey built rules that make federal enforcement harder, and that states do not get to throw sand in the gears when the federal government is acting within its lawful authority.

    New Jersey’s stated position, as described publicly, is closer to: “Sensitive facilities need clear lines, and if federal officials want in, we want a warrant and oversight.” That sounds like property control and safety policy. DOJ says it operates like a constraint aimed at immigration enforcement specifically.

    Why everyone’s cameras are already rolling

    DOJ leans hard on public safety, arguing that non-cooperation can mean dangerous criminals get released when federal authorities would otherwise take custody. DOJ’s announcement cites conviction categories it says are implicated, including aggravated assault, burglary, and drug and human trafficking.

    New Jersey leans hard on civil liberties and process: warrants, access restrictions tied to state property, and new public-facing tools.

    What the courts will have to decide

    • Property control vs. regulation: Is New Jersey managing access to nonpublic areas, or effectively regulating how the federal government enforces immigration law?
    • Neutrality: Does the order single out federal immigration agencies rather than applying an across-the-board access rule?
    • Real-world effects: Does it push arrests into less secure conditions, as DOJ claims, or prevent disruption in sensitive facilities, as New Jersey suggests?

    As basic reporting notes, this is a live federal lawsuit and part of a broader national pattern of battles between the Trump administration and states and cities over cooperation with immigration enforcement.

  • FedEx Wants Its Tariff Money Back, and Washington Wants You to Forget Who Picked Your Pocket

    ByJustin Jest

    The courthouse air is always the same. Cold marble, warm lies. I am running on stale coffee and fresher contempt, watching the machine kick back into gear: privatize the upside, socialize the mess, then hire a PR firm to call it patriotism.

    This week the Supreme Court yanked a lever on Trump’s emergency-tariff hustle. And right on schedule, corporate America treated the ruling like a billing dispute. When the state stops being a weapon and starts being a bill, the biggest players do not write memoirs. They send invoices.

    FedEx sues for refunds after Supreme Court strikes down Trump emergency tariffs

    On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize a president to impose sweeping tariffs. The Court leaned on the plain, unglamorous constitutional point: tariffs are taxes, and taxes are Congress’s job. Translation: you do not get to shout “emergency” and start running a global cash register from the Oval Office.

    Then came the scramble. As of February 23, FedEx filed suit seeking a full refund of duties it paid under those now-illegal tariffs. Associated Press reporting says FedEx is joining a wave of companies lining up to claw money back, and it names U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the United States as defendants. This is not a vibes case. This is dollars with commas.

    Meanwhile, reporting and trade-law analysis says the administration is already hunting for a workaround: pivoting to other statutes, including Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 for a temporary global surcharge, and eyeing Section 232 national security tariffs as the next legal costume for the same impulse. Same fist, different glove.

    Here is the mechanism: chaos first, refunds later, accountability never

    Here is the mechanism: the government creates turbulence, big firms price it in, and then big firms monetize the turbulence. Tariffs get collected by the government. Companies pass costs along where they can, eat some where they must, and keep teams busy gaming exemptions and classifications. When the legal foundation collapses, the biggest players sprint to court to capture the refund stream.

    Axios notes businesses are still unsure how refunds will work because the Court did not set a repayment process. That “uncertainty” is not a footnote. It is the whole operating system. When the rules are unclear, the best-connected win twice: first by navigating the original scheme, then by claiming the reimbursement.

    If you are smaller and you paid duties too? Enjoy the labyrinth. File forms. Wait. Get told something is missing. Get told to sue. The courthouse steps are not a customer service desk.

    Follow the money: who gets made whole, and who gets told to cope

    Follow the money: tariffs under this emergency theory reportedly brought in well over $100 billion. That money did not come out of Trump’s pocket. It came from importers and then, down the line, from consumers. Now the refund question is a knife fight over who gets to be made whole.

    If the government refunds importers, the public does not automatically get repaid for higher prices already paid. There is no reverse checkout where everyone who bought goods with global supply chains gets a deposit labeled “sorry about that.”

    The Supreme Court decision did not end the grift. It changed the paperwork. Now drag the refund process into daylight: public accounting, audits of collections and repayments, and hearings that name beneficiaries. If lawmakers will not defend their own power of the purse, replace them in November with people who will.

  • A Warrant Is Not a Vibe: The SAFE Act Tries to Put One Back in FISA

    ByHarlan Quill

    Surveillance bills always smell like a courthouse hallway: old paper, fresh panic, and someone promising the locks are only for the bad guys. I have watched Congress do this dance long enough to know that “temporary” powers tend to stick around like gum under a committee-room chair.

    So when a bipartisan pair shows up with a proposal that sounds like it might actually tighten the rules on warrantless searching, I do what any library-card patriot does: pull the docket closer, read the fine print, and check who gets the keys.

    What the SAFE Act is, and who introduced it

    On February 23, Senators Mike Lee and Dick Durbin introduced the Security And Freedom Enhancement Act of 2026 (the SAFE Act), aimed at reauthorizing and reforming Section 702 surveillance authority while adding civil-liberties guardrails. The bill text lists additional sponsors, including Senators Kevin Cramer and Mazie Hirono.

    If you are not fluent in FISA acronyms: Section 702 lets the government collect communications of non-U.S. persons abroad, often by compelling help from U.S. tech and telecom companies. The recurring fight is the domestic spillover, and then the domestic searching. Americans’ communications can get swept in, and agencies can go looking for U.S.-person information inside those holdings.

    The Paine test: does this expand liberty or concentrate power?

    The headline guardrail is simple and overdue: after a U.S.-person search returns results, the SAFE Act says the government should have to get a FISA Title I order or a warrant before accessing the content of Americans’ communications collected under Section 702. That is Congress putting a judge back in the loop where a judge belongs.

    • Judge in the loop for content, instead of agencies acting as their own permission slip.
    • More oversight structure, not just good intentions in a closed room.

    The Orwell check: tidy words, messy power

    In surveillance-speak, a “query” sounds like a library catalog. In practice, it can mean searching vast stores of communications data that may reveal Americans’ private lives. The SAFE Act tries to narrow that gap by adding guardrails around “U.S. person queries” and leaning on approvals, documentation, audits, and reporting concepts for certain queries. Fine. But the real grade is whether a judge is required before the government reads the content.

    Then there is the phrase that should set off the smoke alarms: the “data broker loophole.” When agencies buy sensitive data from the commercial market to sidestep what would normally require legal process, your rights turn into a pricing plan. The SAFE Act’s message is basically: stop laundering surveillance through commerce.

    The liberty ledger, and the tradeoff

    If the warrant requirement sticks, ordinary Americans gain a procedural barrier between private communications and government search. The intelligence community and law enforcement lose speed and convenience. That is a real cost. But speed is a management goal, not a constitutional principle.

    Guardrails still need muscle

    Legislation is the easy part. Enforcement is where the republic keeps its shape. If this moves forward, Congress should insist on oversight with consequences, and courts should insist that “national security” is not a magic eraser for the Constitution. And if you like warrants and limits on buying your data from brokers, call your senators and tell them to keep those provisions intact, in public, on the record.

  • The SAFE Act: Putting a Judge Back Between You and the Search Bar

    ByHarlan Quill

    I have read enough committee-room prose to recognize the scent of “temporary” power trying to become furniture. The file gets stamped, the database grows, and the public gets a calming memo about how the adults are on it.

    This week, the adults are on FISA Section 702.

    What Lee and Durbin say the SAFE Act does

    On February 23, Senators Mike Lee and Dick Durbin introduced the Security And Freedom Enhancement Act of 2026, nicknamed the SAFE Act. The pitch is straightforward: reauthorize Section 702 for two years, but add guardrails meant to slow surveillance creep.

    The bill’s central idea is narrow but consequential. If the government wants to access the contents of Americans’ communications that were swept up under Section 702, it should first get a FISA Title I order or a warrant. Not for targeting foreigners abroad. Not for every initial query. For the moment the state moves from casting the net to reading what it caught.

    The Paine test: does this expand liberty or concentrate power?

    Section 702 exists because foreign intelligence threats are real, and modern adversaries move faster than Congress schedules hearings. Fine. But the American bargain is supposed to be that “useful” is not a constitutional standard. Judges, due process, and warrants are.

    The SAFE Act tries to keep the foreign authority running while building a court-ordered backstop before Americans’ content gets accessed through U.S. person searches. The bill text also describes exceptions for exigent circumstances, consent, and cybersecurity-related searches. Those can be life-saving. They can also become the part everyone drives through unless oversight is sharp.

    The Orwell check: when “query” means “search”

    Washington loves a euphemism. “Query” sounds like a librarian asking for a call number. “Search” sounds like the state rummaging through your desk. Same action, different lighting.

    The SAFE Act at least treats that language problem as a real problem, distinguishing running a query from accessing content. But the public’s concern is still the same: whether the government can look at Americans’ private communications without the traditional Fourth Amendment choreography.

    The liberty ledger: who gets protected, who gets exposed?

    • Protected: the Fourth Amendment gets a more explicit seat at the table, and the bill targets the “data broker loophole” where agencies buy sensitive personal data, including location history, instead of going to a judge.
    • Exposed: the bill is not a full reset. It does not abolish Section 702. It aims for a procedural brake at the most sensitive moment: accessing content tied to Americans.

    Guardrails, not slogans

    The SAFE Act nods toward transparency and oversight, leaning on auditing and reporting, and it bolsters the role of amici in FISA Court proceedings so judges are not always hearing from one side.

    A two-year reauthorization is the right instinct. If a tool is vital, it is vital enough to justify frequent reconsideration. Sunsets are not a bug. They are Congress’s only alarm clock.

    Now comes the grown-up part: hearings, sworn testimony, real numbers, real definitions, and a vote in daylight. The question is whether Congress can keep these reforms honest once the lobbying blizzard starts.

  • Refunds Are the Easy Part. The Emergency-Powers Habit Is the Real Bill.

    ByHarlan Quill

    This morning I did the kind of reading that makes you miss the warm fiction section: a Supreme Court slip opinion, a Senate press release, and the familiar scent of paperwork that always feels like it was filed at 11:59 p.m. in a committee room with flickering lights. Under the tariff tables and the legal Latin sits the oldest American argument clearing its throat: who gets to reach into the public’s pocket, and who gets to call it an “emergency” when they do?

    Refund bill after the Court rejected IEEPA tariffs

    On February 23, Senate Democrats led by Ron Wyden, Ed Markey, and Jeanne Shaheen introduced the Tariff Refund Act of 2026. The pitch is blunt: if tariffs were collected under a legal theory the Supreme Court just rejected, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) should pay the money back, with interest, and do it on a clock.

    • Refunds completed within 180 days after enactment
    • Small businesses prioritized
    • Coordination with the Small Business Administration for assistance
    • Regular reports to Congress on refund status
    • An estimated $175 billion in collected tariffs at issue

    This is not abstract bookkeeping. Tariffs are taxes collected at the border, paid by importers, and often passed along in higher prices. Even if you think tariffs can be useful sometimes, the question here is who gets to swing the tool, and whether Congress is content to be the decorative handle.

    What the Supreme Court said (and why it matters)

    The bill lands after the Supreme Court’s February 20 decision in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump (consolidated with Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc.). By a 6-3 vote, the Court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. The Court’s point is old-fashioned on purpose: Congress holds the taxing power, and if the Executive wants something that looks and acts like taxation, it needs clear permission.

    What happened, in plain English

    IEEPA has been used for decades to freeze assets and block transactions. It is an emergency statute, not historically a tariff statute. The administration argued that IEEPA’s power to “regulate” importation in an emergency covered sweeping tariffs. The Supreme Court said no.

    Now comes the aftermath. Democrats want an expedited administrative refund process through CBP. The administration has suggested, as reported by the Associated Press, that refunds are a matter for litigation rather than fast administrative payout. Translation: if you want your money back, hire a lawyer and pack a lunch.

    The tradeoff: refunds versus precedent

    Refunding unlawfully collected money is the easy moral math. The hard part is the plumbing: who gets the refund in a supply chain where costs can be absorbed, passed along, or both? The bill tries to nudge fairness by prioritizing small businesses and by expressing that refunds should get passed down the chain. But a “sense of Congress” is not a receipt. It is a suggestion wearing a blazer.

    The Orwell check and the Paine test

    Listen to the language that did the work: “emergency,” “unusual and extraordinary threats,” “regulate importation.” Control does not usually announce itself as control. And the Paine test still applies: does this expand liberty or concentrate power? The Court drew a boundary around taxation. Congress now has to decide whether it will patrol it with real guardrails, or just narrate it after the fact.

    Guardrails we still need

    Start with transparency: clear CBP guidance on refunds, timelines, and eligibility, plus readable reporting to Congress. Then fix the bigger leak: real sunsets, automatic congressional votes after a short period, and clear definitions of what emergency statutes do and do not authorize. Finally, if the country wants tariffs, Congress should legislate tariff authority honestly, in the open, with procedures and limits that match what tariffs actually are: taxes that shape the economy.

    The Supreme Court set a boundary. Congress now has to choose: co-equal branch, or commentary track?

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