Court Opinion

ID: 9429712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:27:42.942921+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:19:12.046192
License: Public Domain

Justice Powell,
dissenting.
As the petitioners argue, the judgment of the Court may well be in the best interest of the United States. The regulations upheld today limit Cuba’s ability to acquire hard currency, currency that the Executive has found might be used to support violence and terrorism. Our role is limited, however, to ascertaining and sustaining the intent of Congress. It is the responsibility of the President and Congress to determine the course of the Nation’s foreign affairs. In this case, the legislative history canvassed by Justice Blackmun’s dissenting opinion unmistakably demonstrates that Congress intended to bar the President from expanding the exercise of emergency authority under § 5(b). Contrary to the Court’s view, the meaning of the word “authorities” in the grandfather clause is not “clear,” see ante, at 237, nor in my view is it contrary to the fair import of this history.