Supreme Court Rejects Trump Tariffs in Landmark Decision

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled 6-3 that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when imposing sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, IEEPA, a 1977 law reserved for a national emergency. IEEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs, the majority justices wrote in a 170-page ruling. No president has invoked the statute to impose any tariffs, let alone tariffs of this magnitude and scope. The decision upends his country-by-country or reciprocal tariffs, as well as a 25 percent tariff he imposed on some goods from Canada, China, and Mexico, for what the administration said was their failure to curb the flow of fentanyl. However, it does not affect all of Trump's tariffs, leaving in place ones he imposed on steel and aluminum using different laws, for example.