Bibles, tariffs and the First Amendment

Donald Trump's tariff war on China has some interesting twists.

First, it includes books. (In case you didn't know, a lot of printing is done in China.)

Second, because his Religious Right group-think followers are once again too selfish to take a real hit for the Trump Team, well, just as Trump has delayed tariffs on big-screen TVs to not take effect until mid-December, and thus, not disrupt Christmas shopping), well, made in China bibles are being exempted from the tariffs against Chinese books.

On the surface, this sounds interesting enough, per the Pro Publica story.

But, PP doesn't ask any constitutional law scholars if this might be a First Amendment violation.

On a narrow reading, it almost certainly isn't, because the First Amendment begins, "Congress shall make no law ..." and the president isn't Congress. But, along with federalizing the First Amendment, Supreme Court history has generally extended it to executive branch actions as well. New York Times Co vs United States, the Pentagon Papers case over prior restraint and the First Amendment, comes to mind.

So, why isn't this a First Amendment violation?

Instead of warning against “environmental protectionism,” why don’t we practice it?

The U.S. is warning the European Union against this horrible, dastardly practice of actually doing something to protect the environment, even in trade issues.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called in October for a European levy on imports from countries outside the Kyoto Protocol, which include the United States.

Gee, 15 years ago, weren’t Democrats promising us that environmental issues would be part of trade agreements such as NAFTA?

Will this year’s crop of “free trade” Democrats really be that much different than the current occupant of the White House?