Washington, United States. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down on Friday President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs imposed under a national emergencies law, in a ruling with major implications for the global economy. The court ruled 6-3 that Trump exceeded his authority.
Ruling and legal basis
In a 6-3 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the justices upheld a lower court decision finding that Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) exceeded his authority.
The court said the Trump administration’s interpretation that IEEPA grants the president power to impose the tariffs would intrude on the powers of Congress and violate the “major questions” doctrine. The doctrine requires executive actions of “vast economic and political significance” to be clearly authorized by Congress, and the court has used it previously to block some executive actions by former President Joe Biden.
Roberts wrote, citing a prior Supreme Court ruling, that “the president must ‘point to clear congressional authorization’ to justify his extraordinary assertion of the power to impose tariffs,” adding: “He cannot.”
Challenge and vote breakdown
The case arose from a legal challenge brought by businesses affected by the tariffs and 12 U.S. states, most of them Democratic-governed, against Trump’s use of IEEPA to unilaterally impose import taxes.
The dissenters were conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh. Joining Roberts in the majority were conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, both appointed by Trump during his first term, along with the court’s three liberal justices.
Trade policy context and revenue forecast
Trump has used tariffs—taxes on imported goods—as a key economic and foreign policy tool, central to a global trade war initiated after he began his second term, which has alienated trading partners, affected financial markets and caused global economic uncertainty.
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, previously backed Trump in a series of other emergency-basis decisions since he returned to the presidency in January 2025 after lower courts impeded his policies. Trump’s tariffs were forecast to generate trillions of dollars in revenue for the United States over the next decade.
What impact do you think the ruling will have on U.S. trade policy and global markets?
