The Supreme Court on Tuesday left unresolved the closely watched challenge to President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs imposed under emergency powers, issuing three unrelated opinions while holding back its decision on whether the president can levy the duties under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Specifically, the tariff case was not one of those opinions that were issued on Jan. 20, and it has not been indicated by the Court how soon the next opinions would be available. It seems that this is one of the uncertainties that has been created by this Court regarding businesses and trading partners and how much power the president actually holds regarding trading and commerce. Reuters reported that this is an indication that the legality of this tariff program is still not clear at this point in time.
Trump has indicated that the tariffs are integral to his economic strategy and foreign strategy by warning that failure could result in substantial repayment debt related to tariffs already collected. Recently on Truth Social, he has posted that the country will be under considerable strain financially and logistically if refunds of the tariffs are required and has asked that the Court maintain the program.
At issue, in essence, is Trump’s employment of IEEPA, a 1977 law more commonly mentioned in the context of sanctions, tariffs, and emergency actions, for imposing sweeping import taxes without specific Congressional authorization. Critics, consisting of trade companies and a group of states, argue that the taxing and tariff power belongs in the Constitution, within Congress, and that there’s ambiguity in the grant by IEEPA of tariff power as exercised by the president.
During oral argument, justices across the ideological spectrum were pressing the administration about whether such an expansive reading of the language in IEEPA might be feasible and whether it satisfied the “major questions” doctrine in terms of having drastic economic repercussions, as reported in Reuters.
Currently, the tariff ruling hangs in limbo, as there is no schedule set for when the justices will rule on whether Trump’s emergency tariff policy will be valid.
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