Why a conservative justice threw shade at congressional Republicans

It took a conservative Republican jurist to school members of Congress — of both parties — in their critical role in governing this nation and in keeping it from that seductive slide into cult-like authoritarianism.

Now if only Congress will awaken from its long slumber in time to save the country from a precipitous and undeclared war with Iran — even as President Trump continues to saber rattle as he approaches Tuesday night’s State of the Union address and the nation awaits some legal rationale for attacking that nation.

The US Supreme Court decision released Friday rapped the president’s knuckles for using nothing more than his presidential signature to declare tariffs on countries around the world when the power to tax belongs to Congress and Congress alone.

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Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. noted that “When Congress has delegated its tariff powers, it has done so in explicit terms, and subject to strict limits,” something it hadn’t done in the case at hand.

And declaring something an “emergency” by presidential fiat in order to bypass Congress does not make it so, as Roberts pointed out the court also found in ruling against former president Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness order in 2023.

Usurping congressional authority under the guise of an emergency has in recent years become a bipartisan affliction.

While it is sometimes difficult to generalize about “an opinion” when a nine-member court expresses its will in seven separate opinions, there is enormous wisdom — and pointed advice to Congress — in the concurring opinion authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch.

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“For those who think it important for the Nation to impose more tariffs, I understand that today’s decision will be disappointing,” Gorsuch wrote. “All I can offer them is that most major decisions affecting the rights and responsibilities of the American people (including the duty to pay taxes and tariffs) are funneled through the legislative process for a reason.

“Yes, legislating can be hard and take time. And, yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design. Through that process, the Nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people’s elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man.”

In those few simple lines, the justice gets to the essence of the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine that has governed this nation since its founding. It was also a subtle rebuke to Republicans in Congress who have failed to defend the prerogatives of their own branch of government.

It should have been members of Congress, of all parties, insisting all along that the power to tax was theirs alone. But too many GOP members of the House and Senate have instead bowed to the president’s agenda by watching as one executive order after another emerged from the Oval Office.

A few of the congressional Republicans who have shown some backbone in recent days — sadly many of them showing that courage only after announcing their retirement — have taken note of Gorsuch’s message.

Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, who is retiring at the end of this term, told CNN, we “have this ruling now that so clearly puts the power back in Congress’s hands, the House’s hands. We have to stand up on our own two feet and use these authorities, because that’s what the Founders intended.”

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And if not now, when?

Asked repeatedly at his Friday news conference whether he would now go to Congress to impose his tariffs, Trump was quite clear.

“I don’t have to. I have the right to do tariffs,” he responded, contradicting what the court had just ruled.

He persists in his go-it-alone efforts on tariffs, just as he has on his numerous foreign policy adventures. So while Trump authorizes the military seizure of the president of Venezuela and his wife, continues the deadly military assault on what the administration claims are drug smuggling boats, and vows to seize Greenland, Republican members of Congress remain largely mute.

Now the president has Iran in his sights. Will that be just another applause line in tonight’s speech?

Or will the too-silent GOP majority find their voice? After all, the power to declare war is another power the Constitution specifically reserves for Congress. Iran’s leaders are theocratic tyrants who’ve terrorized the Middle East, but that’s not a legal reason to skip the process laid down by the Constitution.

“In all, the legislative process helps ensure each of us has a stake in the laws that govern us and in the Nation’s future,” Gorsuch wrote, adding he hoped that one day all “will appreciate the legislative process for the bulwark of liberty it is.”

But, he might have added, only if it is exercised by those given that heady responsibility.

Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.