Key Points
- In a 6-3 decision, the justices ruled that the law at issue did not grant Trump the power he claimed to impose tariffs.
- Trump has vowed to pursue tariffs through other legal authorities.
The United States Supreme Court has struck down Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, imposed under a law meant for use in national emergencies, in a stinging defeat for the US president in a landmark ruling with major implications for the global economy.
The 6-3 decision, 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 per cent global tariff under a different legal authority from the one at issue in the case.
The 10 per cent global tariff will last for 150 days to replace some of his emergency duties that were struck down in the Supreme Court ruling.
Trump said his order would be made under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, and the duties would be over and above tariffs that are currently in place.
The statute allows the president to impose duties of up to 15 per cent for up to 150 days on any and all countries related to “large and serious” balance of payments issues.
It does not require investigations or impose other procedural limits.
What did the Supreme Court rule?
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.
“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 US 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 US economic security, predicting that the country would be defenceless 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 authorisation’ 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.
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 US$1.2 trillion ($1.69 trillion) US goods trade deficit with the rest of the world to impose tariffs under IEEPA, that deficit grew again in 2025 to a record US$1.24 trillion ($1.75 trillion).
Trump turned to a statutory authority by invoking IEEPA to impose the tariffs on nearly every US 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 authorised by Congress.
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