US Supreme Court strikes down Trump's sweeping global tariffs

The US Supreme Court on February 20 struck down US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs imposed under a law intended for national emergencies, delivering a major legal setback with significant implications for global trade and the U.S. economy.

In a 6-3 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the justices upheld a lower court decision that Trump had exceeded his authority by invoking the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs, Reuters reports.

The court found that the law did not grant the president the power to levy import taxes as Trump had claimed.

"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 majority also concluded that interpreting the law to allow such tariffs would intrude on Congress’s constitutional authority and violate the so-called “major questions” doctrine. That legal principle, embraced by the court’s conservative justices, requires that executive actions of “vast economic and political significance” be clearly authorized by Congress.

The doctrine has previously been used by the court to block key executive actions by former Democratic President Joe Biden.

The White House had no immediate comment on the decision. Democratic lawmakers and several industry groups welcomed the ruling, calling it a reaffirmation of congressional authority over trade policy.

Trump, a Republican, had made tariffs a central pillar of his economic and foreign policy agenda, using them as leverage in trade negotiations and as part of a broader strategy that reshaped global supply chains. During his second term, he initiated a global trade war that strained relations with major trading partners, roiled financial markets and contributed to heightened economic uncertainty worldwide.

Economists had projected that the tariffs could generate trillions of dollars in revenue for the United States over the coming decade. However, the Penn-Wharton Budget Model estimated on February 20 that more than $175 billion had already been collected under the IEEPA-based tariffs. With the court’s decision, much of that amount may now need to be refunded.

In February and March 2025, Trump invoked IEEPA to impose tariffs on imports from China, Canada and Mexico, citing the trafficking of fentanyl and other illicit drugs into the United States as a national emergency.

By Sabina Mammadli