Supreme Court Strikes Down the Emergency-Powers Tariffs, 6-3
The justices ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give a president authority to impose tariffs, voiding the levies that had raised roughly $160 billion and sending the question of refunds back to the trade court.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the president lacks the power to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, striking down in a single 6-3 decision the sweeping duties that have shaped American trade policy for the better part of a year.
The ruling voids the tariffs imposed under that statute, including the broad "reciprocal" levies announced in the spring of 2025. It leaves untouched the separate duties on steel, aluminum, automobiles and other goods imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which rest on national-security findings and a different statutory process.
The reasoning
At issue was whether a 1977 statute that authorizes a president to "regulate" imports during a declared emergency confers the power to tax them. The Court held that it does not. Tariffs are a form of taxation, the majority reasoned, and Congress does not hand over the taxing power in ambiguous verbs.
The decision is a significant application of the principle that questions of vast economic and political significance require clear congressional authorization.
Now the hard part: the money
More than $160 billion has been collected under the invalidated tariffs. The Court did not decide whether importers get that money back, remanding the refund question to the Court of International Trade, which took it up in early March.
Estimates of the eventual bill run as high as $175 billion. The practical questions are numerous: whether refunds flow automatically to importers of record, whether protests must have been filed at entry, how liquidated entries are treated, and what interest applies.
What replaced it
The administration moved within hours. Using Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which permits a temporary import surcharge to address balance-of-payments deficits, the White House announced a global tariff — initially 10%, raised the next day to 15%, the statutory maximum.
Section 122 comes with a hard constraint the emergency statute did not have: it expires after 150 days unless Congress extends it. That clock became the central fact of American trade policy for the following five months.
