The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs that he pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies, handing the Republican president a stinging defeat in a landmark ruling on Friday with major implications for the global economy. The 6-3 decision, opens new tab, authored by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, provoked a furious reaction from Trump, who denounced the justices who ruled against him. Trump said "other alternatives" are available to him to pursue tariffs, and announced a 10% global tariff under a legal authority different from the one at issue in the case "over and above our normal tariffs already being charged." Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here. Advertisement · Scroll to continue
The justices upheld a lower court's decision that Trump's use of this 1977 law exceeded his authority. The justices ruled that the law at issue - the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA - did not grant Trump the power he claimed to impose tariffs. Trump, in comments at the White House after the ruling, condemned it as "terrible" and "totally defective." "I'm ashamed of certain members of the court - absolutely ashamed - for not having the courage to do what's right for our country," Trump said. Trump has leveraged tariffs - taxes on imported goods - as a key economic and foreign policy tool. Advertisement · Scroll to continue
"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, quoting the statute's text that Trump claimed had justified his sweeping tariffs. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the authority to issue taxes and tariffs. Tariffs have been central to a global trade war that Trump initiated after he began his second term as president, one that has alienated trading partners, affected financial markets and caused global economic uncertainty. Trump has called his tariffs vital for U.S. economic security, predicting that the country would be defenseless and ruined without them. "Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic," Trump said on Friday. "They're so happy, and they're dancing in the streets, but they won't be dancing for long that, I can assure you."
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, had allowed Trump's expansive exertion of presidential powers in other areas in a series of rulings issued on an emergency basis, and Friday's ruling represented the biggest setback it has dealt him since he returned to office in January 2025. "It's my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think," Trump said. Joining Roberts in the ruling were conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, both of whom Trump appointed during his first term in office, and the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Roberts, citing a prior Supreme Court ruling, wrote that "the president must 'point to clear congressional authorization' to justify his extraordinary assertion of the power to impose tariffs," adding: "He cannot." Democrats and various industry groups hailed the ruling. Many business groups expressed concern that the decision will lead to months of additional uncertainty as the administration pursues new tariffs through other legal authorities. The ruling did not address the issue of the government refunding tariffs that were struck down. Trump said the issue of refunds could take years to litigate. Trading on Wall Street was volatile after the ruling as investors assessed hopes for easing inflation against uncertainty about Trump's next moves on tariffs. THREE CONSERVATIVES DISSENT Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a dissent joined by fellow conservatives Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, wrote that the ruling did not necessarily foreclose Trump "from imposing most if not all of these same sorts of tariffs under other statutory authorities," adding that "the court's decision is not likely to greatly restrict presidential tariff authority going forward." "In essence, the court today concludes that the president checked the wrong statutory box by relying on IEEPA rather than another statute to impose these tariffs," Kavanaugh wrote. Kavanaugh was appointed by Trump during his first term as president. Trump said of Kavanaugh: "I'm so proud of him," while also praising Thomas and Alito. Trump has imposed some additional tariffs under other laws that were not at issue in this ruling. Based on government data from October to mid-December, those represent about a third of the revenue from Trump-imposed tariffs. Despite Trump declaring a national emergency over the $1.2 trillion U.S. goods trade deficit with the rest of the world to impose tariffs under IEEPA, that deficit grew again in 2025 to a record $1.24 trillion. Trump turned to a statutory authority by invoking IEEPA to impose the tariffs on nearly every U.S. trading partner without the approval of Congress. Part of the Supreme Court's majority declared that Trump's interpretation of the law 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 authorized 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.
