importation

In 1807, Congress passed and President Jefferson signed a bill prohibiting the importation of slaves.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett said she was struggling to understand what Congress meant in the emergency powers law when it said the president may “regulate” importation.

She asked: “Can you point to any other place in the code, or any other time in history, where that phrase ‘together regulate importation’ has been used to confer tariff-imposing authority?”

Faced with such an emergency, he may “investigate, block ... or regulate” the “importation or exportation” of any property.

That law gives the President authority in a national emergency to “deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat,” including to “regulate” the “importation” of foreign property.