Supreme Court Slaps Down Trump And His Tariffs In Historic Ruling

The decision is a stinging defeat for Trump — and three conservative justices voted against him.

The Supreme Court struck down most of the “emergency” tariffs that President Donald Trump foisted on the world, in an extraordinary 6-3 decision on Friday that upholds a key separation of powers.

The ruling held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, did not authorize the president to impose tariffs and remanded the case with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.

“Based on two words separated by 16 others in Section 1702(a)(1)(B) of IEEPA — ‘regulate’ and ‘importation’ — the President asserts the independent power to impose tariffs on imports from any country, of any product, at any rate, for any amount of time. Those words cannot bear such weight,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.

The justices took a convoluted path to a majority, with Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson concurring in part or in all. Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito dissented.

During oral arguments on Nov. 5, justices clearly signaled their skepticism as they grilled Solicitor General John Sauer over Trump’s invocation of the 1977 IEEPA to uniformly impose tariffs on global trading partners without checks by Congress.