• What Happened: The Supreme Court blocked President Trump's Liberation Day tariffs in a 6-3 ruling, finding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not grant the president unilateral authority to impose tariffs.
  • Why It Matters: Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the Constitution gives tariff power to Congress alone, and that two words in the IEEPA cannot justify sweeping tariffs on every country at any rate for any amount of time.
  • Bottom Line: The ruling opens the door to billions in potential refunds to importers, and Trump's trade agenda now faces an uncertain path forward without congressional action.

The Supreme Court dealt President Trump a significant blow Friday, striking down his sweeping Liberation Day tariffs in a 6-3 decision that hands Congress a major victory over executive trade authority.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give the president the power to unilaterally impose tariffs on virtually every U.S. trading partner. Trump had declared the nation's trade deficit a "national emergency" in April and used that declaration to justify a 10% global tariff alongside higher reciprocal tariffs on specific nations.

Roberts was pointed in his reasoning. "The Framers gave that power to 'Congress alone,'" he wrote, adding that two words buried in the IEEPA, separated by 16 others, cannot justify what the administration was attempting to do. "Those words cannot bear such weight," Roberts wrote.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented. Kavanaugh warned in his dissent of serious practical consequences, noting the United States may now be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the tariffs, calling the refund process likely to be a "mess."

The ruling follows unanimous decisions by lower courts, including the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, both of which had already blocked Trump's use of IEEPA for tariff purposes.

Plaintiffs had argued that in 50 years, no president had ever used the law to impose tariffs, and that a trade deficit persisting for nearly half a century hardly qualifies as an "unusual and extraordinary" emergency.

Trump called the tariffs "life or death" for the American economy. The court disagreed. Congress now holds the cards.