Source: EconLog
by Jon Murphy
“Whenever a legal challenge to a given policy is decided, a discussion tends to arise as if the court is making a statement on the desirability of the policy itself. For example, after the US Court of International Trade struck down Trump’s tariffs enacted under the International Economic Policy Act (IEEPA) of 1977 (VOS Selections, Inc. v. Trump), supporters of the tariffs took to social media to decry the court’s ruling as a ‘judicial coup’ against a vital policy. … On the Left, after the US Supreme Court overruled Roe v Wade in Dobbs, many decried the ruling as supporting bad policy (abortion restrictions). The argument they were making was that Dobbs wasn’t wrongly decided because the law was wrong, but because legal abortion is a desirable policy. But here’s the thing: courts do not exist to judge policy.” (06/25/25)