The US Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs that he pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies, handing the Republican president a stinging defeat in a landmark ruling yesterday 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.
The justices upheld a lower court’s decision that Trump’s use of this 1977 law exceeded his authority. 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 defenseless and ruined without them.
“Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic,” Trump said yesterday. “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 yesterday’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.
Trading on Wall Street was volatile after the ruling as investors assessed hopes for easing inflation against uncertainty about Trump’s next moves on tariffs.
Trump has wielded his tariffs to extract concessions and renegotiate trade deals, and as a weapon to punish countries that draw his ire on non-trade political matters. These have ranged from Brazil’s prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, India’s purchases of Russian oil.
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