WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that President Trump’s worldwide tariffs are illegal and cannot stand without Congressional approval.
The 6-3 decision dealt Trump his most significant Supreme Court defeat.
Last year, judges issued temporary injunctions to block many of his efforts, but Friday’s ruling is the first time the president has overstepped his legal authority.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., speaking for the court, said Congress has the power to impose taxes and duties, and lawmakers did not do so in emergency legislation that does not address taxes.
“The President asserts an extraordinary power to set aside taxes of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. Considering the scope, history, and constitutional context of that implied power, he must present express congressional authorization to exercise it,” he wrote in Learning Resources vs. Trump.
Shipping containers transit the Port of Los Angeles in December 2025. The port is North America’s largest and busiest port.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
“And so far no President has read the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to grant such powers. We do not want to have special powers in economic or foreign affairs. We only want, as it should, the limited role given to us by Article III of the Constitution. To fulfill that role, we hold that the IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose taxes,” wrote Roberts.
Three justices – Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – joined the majority, along with two Trump appointees – Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.
In the 46-page agreement, Gorsuch emphasized the central role of Congress.
“The Constitution puts the power of the Nation to establish law in Congress only,” he said. “Whatever else may be said about Congress’s work on the IEEPA, it did not give the President the broad tax powers he sought to exercise.”
Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito dissented.
Kavanaugh said he read the 1977 law as allowing tariffs as one way to “control … imports,” citing the law.
“Like quotas and restrictions, tariffs are a common and common tool to control imports,” he wrote in a 63-page argument.
Seven of the nine justices — all but Alito and Sotomayor — wrote majority opinions or dissents totaling 164 pages.
In response to Friday’s decision, Trump is likely to seek tariffs under other rules that include more restrictions.
The judges did not decide how individuals and companies can seek refunds for the illegal taxes they paid.
Ilya Somin, a constitutional scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute, called the decision “a major victory for the constitutional separation of powers, free trade, and the millions of American consumers and businesses who have endured higher taxes and higher prices because of these costs.”
Trump said his new and ever-changing tariffs would bring billions of dollars to the government and spur more manufacturing in the United States.
But manufacturing employment fell last year, in part because U.S. companies were hurt by the high cost of imported parts.
Critics say the new taxes hurt small businesses in particular and raise prices for American consumers.
The judges focused on the president’s legal authority to impose tariffs as a response to an international economic emergency.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to employees of the defense/aerospace manufacturing company Rocket Lab in Long Beach on Jan. 9.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Several small business owners sued last year to challenge Trump’s import tariffs as illegal and disruptive.
Learning Resources, an Illinois company that sells educational toys for children, said it will have to raise its prices by 70% because most of its toys are manufactured in Asia.
A separate lawsuit was filed by a New York wine merchant and Terry Precision Cycling, which sells women’s cycling clothing.
Both cases were won in lower courts. Justices said the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 cited by Trump did not mention tariffs and had never before been used to impose such import taxes.
The law said the president in response to a national emergency could face an “extraordinary and extraordinary threat” by freezing assets or punishing a foreign country or restricting trade.
Trump said the long-running trade deficit was an emergency and tariffs were the right regulation.
While rejecting Trump’s claim, lower courts vacated his tax while the administration appealed its case to the Supreme Court.
