Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s tariffs with $175B on the line
President Donald Trump was outraged Friday after the Supreme Court issued an extraordinary ruling challenging his widespread tariff policy.
According to CNN, Trump was meeting with senior White House officials when the decision was announced and called it a “disgrace.”
At the same time, Wall Street celebrated the stock market’s rise following the tariff decision.
In a 6-3 decision written by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said Trump did not have the authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.
Trump used the law as a legal basis for his widespread tariff policy, which he boasted would enrich the country.
The court’s rejection came even though the President had the advantage of a conservative majority. He appointed three Supreme Court Justices in his first term: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Despite the court’s 6-3 tilt to the right, Gorsuch and Barrett ruled against the President on Friday, with Kavanaugh penning the dissent.
An estimated $175 billion in tariff revenue is at stake, according to the Penn-Wharton Budget Model, Reuters reported.
President Donald Trump holds the list of reciprocal tariffs imposed on ‘Independence Day’ on April 2
Traders are on the ground Friday as the Supreme Court rules against President Donald Trump’s widespread tariff policy
Celebrating ‘Independence Day’ on April 2, he announced that reciprocal customs duties would be imposed on nations around the world, even on uninhabited islands.
The president used the justification that there was a national emergency due to trade deficits and national security threats.
When he took office last year, he imposed tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China due to fentanyl leakage into the United States.
Trump has also used tariffs to threaten other countries, such as postponing a 25 percent tariff on Indian imports because the country continues to buy Russian oil.
But Roberts, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, wrote in the resolution that if Congress had intended to give the President ‘a separate and extraordinary authority to impose tariffs, it would have done so expressly, as has been consistently the case with other tariff laws.’
The Chief Justice said that ‘the president must ‘point to clear congressional authority’ to justify his extraordinary claim to authority to impose tariffs.’
“He can’t,” Roberts said.
The decision will not affect all of Trump’s sweeping tariffs. The decrees regarding steel and aluminum were issued by different laws.
For months, Trump openly pushed the Supreme Court to rule in his favor, even flirting with coming to the Courtrooms to watch oral arguments.
“If we don’t win this case, we will be in a weakened, distressed financial mess for many years to come,” Trump said in October. ‘I don’t even know if it’s possible to survive. That’s why I’m thinking of going to the Supreme Court to watch it. I didn’t do this. And I’ve had some pretty big cases.’
Trump did not review oral arguments, which critics argued could raise constitutional questions about the separation of powers.
President Donald Trump was entertaining members of the National Governors Association when the Supreme Court’s tariff decision was announced. He had already kicked out members of the press, and via CNN reported that he reacted by calling the decision a ‘disgrace’.
Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch (top left) joined the Court’s liberal wing in ruling against President Donald Trump. Trump appointee Judge Brett Kavanaugh (second from right) wrote the dissenting opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts (center, first row) wrote the decision
Joined by conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, Kavanaugh suggested Trump could use a different law to push his tariff agenda.
“In fact, the Court concluded today that the President checked the wrong legal box by relying on IEEPA rather than another law to impose these tariffs,” Kavanaugh wrote.
The decision also stated that Trump could request permission from Congress.
Trump still holds Republican majorities in the House and Senate ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Still, he would likely need to strike a deal with Senate Democrats to enact any tariff legislation.
While the court gave the administration these avenues to explore, the decision did not address the issue of how tariff refunds would be handled.
This fight will likely play out in the lower courts.
