Historic Supreme Courts--Tariffs, Episode 4: From Lochner to New Deal: How the Court Transformed Tariff Review

This episode traces the constitutional shift between the Lochner era and the New Deal Court and explains why judges after 1937 would defer to Congress and the executive on tariffs imposed under broad statutory authority like Section 232.

Through landmark cases from West Coast Hotel and Jones & Laughlin to Curtis Wright and Yakis, it shows how deference to legislative purpose, delegation, and executive foreign‑policy power made judicial strikes against tariffs unlikely—turning constitutional doctrine from strict limits on governance into support for flexible, modern administration.