Republican lawmakers are quietly hoping the Supreme Court will hit the brakes on President Trump’s trade war, which has become a growing political liability for the GOP even with the president’s pause of much of his tariff regime.

The high court has ruled in favor of Trump several times during his first few months in office, but it handed his administration a setback last week by ruling that it must facilitate the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.

Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs against more than 180 counties face new legal challenges after several businesses sued the administration in the U.S. Court of International Trade and a federal district court in Florida.

Most of those tariffs are on hold for a 90-day period to allow countries to negotiate with the Trump administration. China is the big exception. Many of its products now face tariffs at 145 percent.

Some Republican lawmakers, who privately oppose Trump’s tariffs but are afraid of criticizing the president publicly, hope that that the Supreme Court will ultimately curb Trump’s tariff authority.

“Members would love to have the courts bail them out and basically step in and assert the authority under the Constitution that taxes are supposed to originate in the House of Representatives,” said Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and former Senate GOP aide.

“Senators and House members would like the courts to give them some cover because I’m sure many of them are nervous about getting reelected if these tariffs last for a long time. They’re looking at the poll numbers and see that tariffs are not popular,” he said.

“They’re not going to be outwardly opposing the president because that comes with a huge downside,” he added.

Jeffrey M. Schwab, the senior counsel for the Liberty Justice Center, which has filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs on behalf of U.S. businesses that import goods from the countries targeted by the levies, said the case is likely to reach........

© The Hill