Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump · ¶236

A person had no core private right to import goods at the founding. On the Founders' understanding, statutes allowing “importation of goods from abroad were thought to create mere privileges rather than core private rights.” Nelson, 107 Colum. L. Rev., at 580. Foreign commerce was governed by the law of nations, which is a law of “sovereigns,” not of “private individuals.” Vattel 285. “[A]ny attempt to introduce foreign goods” without the “expressed allowances” of the sovereign was “a violation of its sovereignty.” Cross v. Harrison, 16 How. 164, 196 (1854). “Every state” had “a right to prohibit the entrance of foreign merchandises,” including through the imposition of duties on imports. Vattel §§ 90, 99, at 38, 43. Because “no one had a vested right to import” any “goods from abroad,” the imposition of “tariffs” as a condition for importing those goods did not implicate the Due…

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