Trump Lawyer Gets Laughed At After Invoking Climate ‘Hoax’ In Bonkers Supreme Court Moment

Trump Solicitor General John Sauer conferred emergency climate change authority on a future president as he argued at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, drawing laughter when he invoked President Donald Trump’s claim that it’s a “hoax,” and Justice Neil Gorsuch dropped a quick rejoinder.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in a case challenging Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs based on the invocation of emergency powers.

The arguments were carried live by CNN’s The Situation Room, during which a skeptical Gorsuch used climate change to illustrate the extremes of Sauer’s argument:

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: What’s the reason to accept the notion that Congress can hand off the power to declare war to the president?

SOLICITOR GENERAL D. JOHN SAUER: We don’t contend that again.

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: You do, you say it’s unreviewable, there’s no manageable standard, nothing to be done. Tell me if I’m wrong, you backed off that position.

SOLICITOR GENERAL D. JOHN SAUER: Maybe that’s fair to say.

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: Okay, alright. Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

SOLICITOR GENERAL D. JOHN SAUER: That would be, I think, an abdication. That would really be an abdication, not a delegation.

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: I’m delighted to hear that you know.

(LAUGHTER).

All right and. I want to return to something Justice Sotomayor asked under this statute okay. So now we’re in this statute. It’s a major question though.

Could the president impose a 50 percent tariff on gas-powered cars and auto parts to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat from abroad of climate change?

SOLICITOR GENERAL D. JOHN SAUER: It’s very likely that that could be done.

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: I think that has to be the logic of your view.

SOLICITOR GENERAL D. JOHN SAUER: Yeah, in other words, obviously this administration would say that’s a hoax, it’s not a real crisis, but…

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: I’m sure you would!

(LAUGHTER).

SOLICITOR GENERAL D. JOHN SAUER: Yes, but that would be a question for Congress under our interpretation, not for the courts.

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: All right.

Watch above via CNN’s The Situation Room.