WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court struck down on Friday President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs that he pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies, rejecting one of his most contentious assertions of his authority in a ruling with major implications for the global economy.
The justices, in a 6-3 ruling authored by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, upheld a lower court’s decision that the Republican president’s use of this 1977 law exceeded his authority.
“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.
Trump has leveraged tariffs – taxes on imported goods – as a key economic and foreign policy tool. They 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.
Roberts, citing a prior Supreme Court ruling, wrote that “the president must ‘point to clear congressional authorization’ 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.
The ruling sent U.S. stock indexes, long buffeted by Trump’s unpredictable moves on tariffs, up by the most in more than two weeks and weakened the dollar. Treasury yields edged higher.
Trump was addressing a gathering of state governors at the White House when he was handed a note from an aide informing him of the Supreme Court decision, according to two sources familiar with the event. Trump appeared visibly frustrated and told the audience that the ruling was a “disgrace” and that he had to do something about the courts, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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