\n<\/p>\n
The US supreme court declared many of Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs illegal on Friday, in a sharp rebuke that topples a key pillar of the president\u2019s aggressive economic agenda.<\/p>\n
In a 6-3 ruling, the court decided that a 1977 law designed to address national emergencies did not provide the legal justification for most of the Trump administration\u2019s tariffs on countries across the world. It is the first time the court has overruled one of Trump\u2019s second-term policies.<\/p>\n
Trump blasted the justices who ruled against him at a press conference, calling them \u201ca disgrace to the nation\u201d and said the ruling had emboldened him to enact \u201cvery powerful alternatives\u201d to the tariffs declared illegal.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Trump announces 10% global tariff after supreme court ruling \u2013 video<\/span><\/p>\n The president promptly announced he would enact a new 10% global baseline tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose tariffs for 150 days. Trump said that the administration would initiate investigations into unfair trading practices that could lead to permanent tariffs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile I am sure that they did not mean to do so, the supreme court\u2019s decision today made a president\u2019s ability to both regulate trade and impose tariffs, more powerful and more crystal clear, rather than less,\u201d he said. \u201cThere will no longer be any doubt that the income coming in and the protection of our companies and country will actually increase because of this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n The ruling was a significant blow for one of Trump\u2019s boldest assertions of executive power since his return to the White House. Trump has used tariffs to aggressively reshape US trade policy, upending decades of agreements and collecting tens of billions of dollars from companies importing foreign goods.<\/p>\n Tariffs typically need to be approved by Congress, which has sole authority under the constitution to levy taxes. Trump argued that he had the right to impose tariffs on trading partners under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, which in some circumstances grants the president authority to regulate or prohibit international transactions during a national emergency.<\/p>\n But in its majority opinion, the court said the ability to enact tariffs during peacetime does in fact belong to Congress.<\/p>\n The court cited the creators of the constitution, who \u201crecognized the unique importance of this taxing power \u2013 a power which \u2018very clear[ly]\u2019 includes the power to impose tariffs\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd they gave Congress \u2018alone \u2026 access to the pockets of the people,\u201d the opinion reads. \u201cThe Framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the executive branch.\u201d<\/p>\n The court also cited what\u2019s known as the \u201cmajor questions doctrine\u201d, a principle under which the executive branch cannot rely on ambiguous language in laws passed by Congress to justify consequential action.<\/p>\n \u201cThese considerations apply with particular force where, as here, the purported delegation involves the core congressional power of the purse,\u201d the court said. \u201cWhen Congress has delegated its tariff powers, it has done so in explicit terms and subject to strict limits.\u201d<\/p>\n Because of this, the president \u201cmust \u2018point to clear congressional authorization\u2019 to justify his extraordinary assertion of that power\u201d, the court said. \u201cHe cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n The court also pointed out that the White House conceded that the president \u201cenjoys no inherent authority to impose tariffs during peacetime\u201d, which is why it used the IEEPA to pass its tariffs.<\/p>\n Voting to strike down the tariffs were the court\u2019s liberal bloc \u2013 Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Joining them were Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, who were both appointed by Trump during his first term.<\/p>\n In a dissenting opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued that the court\u2019s opinion \u201cis not likely to greatly restrict presidential tariff authority going forward\u201d because the court essentially ruled that Trump just \u201cchecked the wrong statutory box by relying on IEEPA\u201d instead of other laws to pass his tariffs.<\/p>\n Instead, the ruling would \u201clikely generate other serious practice consequences in the near term\u201d, including whether refunds will be issued on the tariffs.<\/p>\n \u201cRefunds of billions of dollars would have significant consequences for the US Treasury. The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers,\u201d Kavanaugh wrote. \u201cThat process is likely to be a \u2018mess\u2019, as was acknowledged at oral argument.\u201d<\/p>\n While the president has claimed that tariffs would fill US federal coffers, revitalize the country\u2019s industrial heartlands and make the world economy more \u201cfair\u201d to the US, economists have repeatedly warned they risk raising prices further for Americans after years of heightened inflation.<\/p>\n In a post on X, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, called the decision a \u201cvictory for the wallets of every American consumer. Trump\u2019s illegal tariff tax just collapsed \u2013 He tried to govern by decree and stuck families with the bill. Enough chaos. End the trade war.\u201d<\/p>\n The US\u2019s major trading partners reacted cautiously to the news. William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chamber of Commerce, said: \u201cWhile this decision gives clarity on the president\u2019s executive powers to raise tariffs it does little to clear the murky waters for business.\u201d<\/p>\n The ruling relates to Trump\u2019s use of the IEEPA, said Bain. \u201cDifferent legislation has been used for other US tariffs, such as for steel and aluminium, and the president also has other options at his disposal to retain his current regime \u2026 For the UK, the priority remains bringing tariffs down wherever possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Mexico\u2019s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said her administration was reviewing the decision. \u201cNot only are we the largest exporter to the United States, but we are also the largest buyer of US products,\u201d she said at her daily morning conference. \u201cWhat that shows is that beyond a particular policy of greater protectionism, it is very important for both countries to maintain the trade agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The US supreme court declared many of Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs illegal on Friday, in a sharp rebuke that topples a key pillar of the president\u2019s aggressive economic agenda. In a 6-3 ruling, the court decided that a 1977 law designed to address national emergencies did not provide the legal justification for most of the Trump<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[160,3298,1123,8619,12523,1664,666,159,72,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-44887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-court","9":"tag-executive","10":"tag-global","11":"tag-illegally","12":"tag-impose","13":"tag-power","14":"tag-rules","15":"tag-supreme","16":"tag-tariffs","17":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}