The Supreme Court of the United States ruled on Friday that Donald Trump overstepped his authority by imposing sweeping tariffs under a law intended for national emergencies.
In a 6–3 decision, the court held that Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to levy broad tariffs on goods entering the United States was not legally permissible.
Majority Opinion
Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, joined by the court’s three liberal justices and two conservative colleagues — Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.
“The president asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration and scope,” Roberts wrote. However, he noted that the administration had failed to identify any statute in which Congress authorised IEEPA to be used for imposing tariffs.
“We hold that IEEPA does not authorise the president to impose tariffs,” the chief justice concluded.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito dissented.
Scope of the Ruling
The decision marks a rare legal defeat for the Trump administration before a court with a 6–3 conservative majority, particularly since Trump began his second term in January.
Importantly, the ruling does not invalidate all of Trump’s tariffs. Duties imposed on steel and aluminium under separate statutory authorities remain intact.
However, the judgment blocks two major categories of tariffs introduced under IEEPA:
So-called “reciprocal” country-specific tariffs, which ranged from 34% on China to a 10% baseline on other nations.
A 25% tariff applied to certain goods from Canada, China and Mexico, which the administration justified as a response to those countries’ alleged failure to curb the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
The ruling curtails the executive branch’s ability to rely on emergency economic powers to reshape trade policy unilaterally, reinforcing Congress’s central role in tariff and trade authority.
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