U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down The President's Global Tariffs

Reuters

A general view of U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., U.S.

The  U.S. Supreme Court on Friday struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which he had imposed under a law intended for use during national emergencies, in a landmark ruling with significant implications for the global economy.

In a 6–3 decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court upheld a lower court’s finding that President Trump had exceeded his authority in invoking the 1977 statute. The justices ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) did not grant the president the power he claimed in order to impose the tariffs.

"Our task today is to decide only whether the power to "regulate ... importation," as granted to the president in IEEPA, embraces the power to impose tariffs. It does not," Roberts wrote in the ruling.

President Trump has used tariffs — taxes imposed on imported goods — as a central instrument of both economic and foreign policy. They have formed a cornerstone of the global trade war he initiated following the start of his second term in office.

Roberts, citing a prior Supreme Court ruling, wrote that "the president must 'point to clear congressional authorisation' to justify his extraordinary assertion of the power to impose tariffs," adding: "He cannot."

Democrats and a range of industry groups welcomed the ruling. However, many business organisations cautioned that the decision could usher in months of further uncertainty as the administration seeks to impose new tariffs under alternative legal authorities. The Court’s judgement did not address whether the government would be required to refund tariffs that have now been invalidated.

The decision prompted a strong market reaction. U.S. stock indices — which have been repeatedly unsettled by President Trump’s shifting tariff policies — rose by their largest margin in more than two weeks. The dollar weakened, while U.S. Treasury yields edged higher.

At an event in Georgia on Thursday on the eve of the ruling, President Trump said, "Without tariffs ... everybody would be bankrupt. Everybody. The whole country would be bankrupt. ... And the language is clear that I have the right to do it as president. I have the right to put tariffs on for national security purposes."

Part of the Supreme Court's majority also declared that such an interpretation would intrude on the powers of Congress and violate a legal principle called the "major questions" doctrine.

The conservative doctrine requires actions by the government's executive branch of "vast economic and political significance" to be clearly authorised by Congress. The court used the doctrine to stymie some of Democratic former President Joe Biden's key executive actions.

Roberts said that endorsing the administration's views would impermissibly expand presidential authority over tariff policy.

"It would replace the longstanding executive-legislative collaboration over trade policy with unchecked presidential policymaking," Roberts wrote.

It was "telling" that "no President has invoked the statute to impose any tariffs - let alone tariffs of this magnitude and scope," Roberts added.

The Supreme Court reached its conclusion in a legal challenge by businesses affected by the tariffs and 12 U.S. states, most of them Democratic-governed, against Trump's unprecedented use of this law to unilaterally impose the import taxes.

Joining Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority were conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, both appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, along with the Court’s three liberal justices: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

However, the liberal justices did not join the portion of the opinion invoking the “major questions doctrine”.

The Supreme Court, which holds a 6–3 conservative majority, had previously sided with President Trump in several emergency rulings issued after his return to office in January 2025, when lower courts had blocked aspects of his policy agenda.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the authority to levy taxes and tariffs rests with Congress, not the president. Nevertheless, President Trump relied on statutory authority by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners without congressional approval.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other administration officials indicated that the government would seek to preserve as many of the tariffs as possible by relying on alternative legal grounds. These include statutory provisions permitting tariffs on imports deemed to threaten U.S. national security, as well as measures allowing retaliatory action — including tariffs — against trading partners that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative determines have engaged in unfair trade practices against American exporters.

Source: Reuters



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