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A Tax Expired at Midnight. Another Took Its Place in the Same Minute.

  • Writer: Jeff Kellick
    Jeff Kellick
  • 3 days ago
  • 3 min read

Contemporary Application to Self-Evident: The Road to 1776 — Episode 11B



Learning Resources v. Trump, Section 122, and the 1689 Bill of Rights: How the Taxing Power Left Congress


At one minute past midnight on July 24, 2026, a tax on most of what Americans buy from abroad stopped existing. No bill passed either chamber. No president signed anything. The authority simply reached the end of a sentence written into a statute in 1974 and expired. In the same minute a different tax took its place, at roughly the same rate, on roughly the same goods, paid by the same importers at the same ports. What changed was the statutory citation in the corner of the form, and one thing no announcement mentioned: the old tax had a deadline that put the question back to Congress, and the new one has a deadline that puts the question to a federal agency and to the industries that benefit from it.


Five months earlier the Supreme Court had told the President he could not impose those tariffs. Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump came down six to three on February 20, 2026, written by the Chief Justice, resting on Article I and on Chief Justice Marshall’s proposition in Gibbons v. Ogden that a tariff is a branch of the taxing power. The President obeyed. Customs and Border Protection has since reported roughly $128.6 billion in potential and certified refunds accepted for processing. That compliance is the most important fact in this episode, and it is stated first, because a government that gives money back when a court tells it to is doing something most governments in most centuries would not have done.


Then, within hours, came Proclamation 11012 under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a ten percent surcharge with a hard statutory ceiling of fifteen percent and a hard limit of 150 days. That clock ran out on July 24. And in the same minute, a Section 301 action covering sixty economies took effect. Section 301 has no rate ceiling, and its continuation is decided not by Congress but by a written request from a benefiting domestic industry followed by an agency review. Across a Supreme Court defeat, a substitute authority, a statutory expiration and a replacement, Congress took no recorded vote.


Saturday’s episode covered the settlement of 1688 and 1689 that stripped the Crown of the power to tax alone and keep an army alone. Today we read the whole of the money clause, including the three words almost nobody quotes, and follow it forward through a forty trillion dollar national debt, a permanent appropriation for interest that no Congress votes on, a central bank Congress designed and insulated on purpose, and an operation in the long end of the bond market that begins next week. The claim is not that the Constitution failed. February proved the improvement on 1689 is real. July proved it is not sufficient.


One question governs everything we do on this program. Did this leave Americans more free, or more governed?


⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 - The Midnight Tariff Expiration and Replacement

01:06 - The Supreme Court Ruling on Presidential Tariff Authority

02:37 - Episode Introduction: Self-Evident, Week 11, Part B

04:44 - The English Bill of Rights of 1689 and the Money Clause

07:44 - The Mutiny Act of 1689 and Parliament's Renewal Clock

11:11 - Analysis of Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump and IEEPA

15:03 - Proclamation 11012 and Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974

17:46 - Section 301 Investigations and the Beneficiary-Driven Renewal Clock

21:50 - Section 232 and the Lack of Congressional Votes

24:46 - The Congressional Trade Powers Reform Act and Trade Review Act of 2025

28:12 - Crossing the $40 Trillion National Debt Threshold

31:18 - Inflation as a Wealth Transfer and the Federal Reserve's Statutory Authority

36:27 - Treasury Buyback Operations and Liquidity Support

41:18 - Article I, Section 8: The Two-Year Limitation on Army Appropriations

46:16 - Evaluating the Non-Delegation Doctrine and Judicial Remedies

50:30 - Defending the Necessity of Speed in Statutory Delegation

55:13 - The Liberty Test: Are Americans More Free or More Governed?

01:00:17 - Preview for Thursday: Jim Ostrowski on the Arms Clause

01:00:53 - Outro and Consequential Actions Subscription Details



Covers the fourth declaratory clause in full, the 1689 revenue settlement and the four-year customs grant, the first Mutiny Act and its seven-month life, Learning Resources v. Trump and the three-justice major questions plurality, Section 122 and Section 307, and the two bills now sitting in the Senate Finance Committee.


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