US Supreme Court nullifies Trump’s global tariffs
The Supreme Court of the United States has struck down a central pillar of President Donald Trump’s economic agenda, ruling that the law he relied on does not grant him
The Supreme Court of the United States has struck down a central pillar of President Donald Trump’s economic agenda, ruling that the law he relied on does not grant him authority to impose sweeping tariffs on imports.
In a 6–3 decision delivered Friday, the court held that the emergency statute used by the Trump administration cannot be stretched to reshape global trade policy. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the Constitution requires clear approval from Congress before a president can exercise such far-reaching economic powers.
“The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope,” Roberts wrote. “He must identify clear congressional authorisation to exercise it.”
The ruling invalidates tariffs that had become the centrepiece of Trump’s second-term economic strategy and a major instrument of his foreign policy. It also represents the first major legal setback for Trump’s expansive interpretation of presidential authority following a series of Supreme Court decisions that had previously favoured him.
American media described the judgment as a significant rebuke. According to the Associated Press, the court stressed that it was not assessing the wisdom of tariffs themselves but the limits of executive power.
“We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs,” Roberts wrote. “We claim only the limited role assigned to us by the Constitution.”
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Trump imposed the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), citing emergencies ranging from fentanyl trafficking to trade deficits. It marked the first time in the law’s nearly 50-year history that a president attempted to use it to levy tariffs.
Lower courts had allowed the measures to remain in place while the case was under review. The tariffs, targeting imports from Canada, China, Mexico and dozens of other trading partners, raised costs for businesses and consumers while generating billions of dollars in revenue. Sector-specific tariffs on steel and aluminium, imposed under separate laws, remain unaffected.
In recent weeks, Trump warned that overturning the tariffs would harm the U.S. economy.
“We have taken in, and will soon be receiving, more than 600 billion dollars in tariffs,” he wrote on Truth Social.
On another occasion, he said a ruling against him would leave the country “screwed.”
The decision is expected to trigger a wave of refund claims from companies seeking to recover billions paid under the invalidated tariffs. U.S. media reported that major firms, including Costco, Toyota group companies and Revlon, had already begun legal moves ahead of the ruling.
Despite the court’s conservative majority, the justices expressed deep concern about the administration’s reliance on repeated emergency declarations to justify a broad economic agenda. The ruling is likely to intensify debate in Washington over the balance of power between Congress and the presidency, as well as the limits of emergency authority in peacetime.
