Supreme Court Rules Against Trump Tariffs

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not allow President Donald Trump to impose tariffs.

The phrase “regulate importation” in IEEPA does not include the power to tariff, the 6-3 majority held, finding Congress would have included an explicit authorization in the statute if it “intended to convey the distinct and extraordinary power to impose tariffs.”

“We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “We claim only, as we must, the limited role assigned to us by Article III of the Constitution. Fulfilling that role, we hold that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”

Trump cited the fentanyl crisis for a first set of tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico in February. He pointed to a growing trade deficit for his second set of “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, which imposed a baseline 10% tariff on imports, with increasing rates depending on the country.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissented, finding “tariffs are a traditional and common tool to regulate importation.”

“Properly read, IEEPA does not draw such an odd distinction between quotas and embargoes on the one hand and tariffs on the other,” Kavanaugh wrote in his dissent. “Rather, it empowers the President to regulate imports during national emergencies with the tools Presidents have traditionally and commonly used, including quotas, embargoes, and tariffs.”

Kavanaugh noted the majority’s ruling is likely to spark “serious practical consequences in the near term.”

“The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers,” he wrote. “But that process is likely to be a ‘mess,’ as was acknowledged at oral argument.”

Yet the decision “might not substantially constrain a President’s ability to order tariffs going forward,” Kavanaugh noted.

“That is because numerous other federal statutes authorize the President to impose tariffs and might justify most (if not all) of the tariffs at issue in this case—albeit perhaps with a few additional procedural steps that IEEPA, as an emergency statute, does not require,” he wrote.

While agreeing Trump’s tariffs are illegal under IEEPA, Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson did not join part of Robert’s opinion invoking the “major questions doctrine,” concluding “the ordinary tools of statutory interpretation amply support today’s result.”

“The Constitution lodges the Nation’s lawmaking powers in Congress alone, and the major questions doctrine safeguards that assignment against executive encroachment,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion. “Under the doctrine’s terms, the President must identify clear statutory authority for the extraordinary delegated power he claims.”

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