On Friday morning, the United States Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that President Donald Trump does not have the authority to impose broad, unilateral tariffs. The split ruling, which included multiple parts with differing vote counts, ultimately decreed that the office of the President does not unilaterally have that power under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The Supreme Court’s ruling upheld an appeal by the Trump Administration over a lower court decision that had ruled that President Trump’s unilateral tariffs were illegal. The tariffs were a large plank in Trump’s second term agenda.
Former Acting Solicitor General of the United States Neal Katyal, who presented the case to the Court that the tariffs were unlawful, remarked:
“Today, the Supreme Court stood up for the rule of law. Stood up for Americans everywhere. Its message was simple: President’s are powerful, but our Constitution is more powerful still. In America, the Chief Justice, writing for six Justices, said that only Congress can impose taxes on the American people. And that’s what tariffs are, tariffs are taxes.”
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion in the case. However, parts of the case have been remanded back to the lower courts for consideration of some aspects. The IEEPA law was enacted by Congress in 1977 to provide the President with authority to regulate some economic activity following a national emergency. Other laws do allow the President to enact temporary or targeted tariffs, the court ruled, but not the ability to enact them broadly as a matter of general process and with out specific reasoning.
“The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope,” Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it.”
From SCOTUSblog: “Based on two words separated by 16 others in … IEEPA,” Roberts writes, ” ‘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.”
The decision does not affect all of Trump’s tariffs, but is more focused on his broader sweeping tariffs, which the court said he could not use IEEPA to enact. Katyal noted that in its nearly 50-year history, the IEEPA has never been used by a president to enact broad sweeping tariffs.
Whether the Trump Administration will be required to refund tariffs already paid by businesses, and ultimately their customers, has not been addressed thus far.
Update: 1:40 p.m. ET — President Trump responded to the Supreme Court decision.
“I’d like to thank and congratulate Justices Thomas, Alito and Kavanaugh for their strength and wisdom and love of our country, which is, right now, very proud of those justices,” President Trump said in a news conference.
As to the six Supreme Court justices who ruled that the tariffs were improper, Trump added: “They’re against anything that makes America strong, healthy and great again. They also are a, frankly disgrace to our nation, those justices, they’re an automatic no.”
Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell (Rep.) noted his agreement with the Court’s ruling.
“As a matter of policy, the empty merits of sweeping trade wars with America’s friends were evident long before today’s decision,” McConnell said in a statement issued on Friday. “The American people already know that when Washington throws up artificial barriers, building and buying here at home become more expensive. Kentuckians whose livelihoods depend on auto manufacturing, agricultural commodity markets, or demand for bourbon whiskey understand this painful reality better than most.”
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More information is available from these sources:
- NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-strikes-trumps-tariffs-major-blow-president-rcna244827
- FOX News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-decision-donald-trump-tariff-powers
- CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/20/politics/supreme-court-tariffs
- CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-tariffs-decision-trump/
- Associated Press: https://apnews.com/live/supreme-court-tariff-ruling-updates
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