During their Oct. 2025 term, the Supreme Court argued that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) was improperly invoked. Then on Feb. 20, the court ruled that the tariffs levied by the Trump Administration were unconstitutional. They cited a lack of authority and authorization, given that it is Congress that holds the right to impose tariffs and not the president. A Labor Spotlight Series event hosted on Thursday, Nov. 20 by the UMaine Bureau of Labor Education asserted that President Trump’s tariffs were “disastrous” for Maine, but they did not appear to have a major effect on local businesses in Orono that were interviewed.
IEEPA authorizes the president to levy tariffs under “unusual and extraordinary threat,” according to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute. The threats cited by the Trump administration include an alleged drug crisis and American manufacturing and trade deficits. President Trump’s response to these threats was a 25% duty on imports from Mexico and Canada, and a 10% duty on Chinese imports. He also levied 10% duties on countries he deemed responsible for the American economic deficits.
Supreme Court Justice Roberts said that it is “telling that in IEEPA’s ‘half century of existence,’ no President has invoked the statute to impose any tariffs—let alone tariffs of this magnitude and scope.”
In an effort to better understand how local businesses near campus may have been impacted by these tariffs, several store owners in Orono were interviewed. Aaron James, a manager at Damon’s Beverage and Redemption, explained that most of the shop’s stock comes from distributors. Since they are not importing directly, his store does not tend to absorb the extra costs from the tariffs.
“Wine would kind of be the biggest producer of that [higher costs]. We get a lot of wines from different countries and the majority of that goes through our distributors, so we don’t import directly,” said James. “So it’s not something that we, you know, that we charge for.”
James said that the primary effects from tariffs come from wine, which has gone up in price over the past two years. He noted that the rest of the store’s stock has not fluctuated much in price.
“Distributor prices have been affected by tariffs a little bit, I wouldn’t say anything too egregious—where you’re seeing a bottle that usually cost around five dollars or anything like that jumping to like double the price. You’re seeing a little bit of price differences, like probably two to three dollars, I would say,” said James. The only other item James worried would be impacted by tariffs was craft beer, because the cans use Canadian aluminum.
Elizabeth McKillen, Professor Emerita of History at UMaine, backed James’ concern regarding Canadian imports in a Nov. 20 interview at the Labor Spotlight Series on tariffs.
“Of course, Maine is particularly hurt now because he [President Trump] has this arbitrary grievance against Canada for some reason, and it’s our strongest trading partner,” said McKillen.
Other businesses, such as Mainely Succulents, said they are unaffected by tariffs because they source locally. On a phone call, they clarified that they do not sell any items that are international imports and that all of their goods come from local vendors. Businesses such as Dysart’s Travel Stops also said they were unaffected by tariffs, but declined to comment further.
Overall, it would seem as though the extra costs brought on by the Trump administration’s tariffs are being absorbed by distributors and consumers, and not directly by many local businesses.
