Donald Trump had been warning for months that a Supreme Court decision like this would be catastrophic.
If the court curtailed his ability to impose these tariffs, he had said, it would be an “economic and national security disaster”.
A six-justice majority of the Supreme Court, in ruling against the president on Friday, didn’t care much about his concerns.
Congress, not the president, has the power to impose tariffs, the justices ruled. And nothing in the law that the president based his tariffs on, the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, delegated such sweeping powers to Trump.
Trump, in a hastily arranged press conference on Friday afternoon, lashed out at the justices who ruled against him. He said he was “ashamed” of the three conservatives who struck down his tariffs and called the three liberals on the court a “disgrace”.
Trump then promised to reimpose tariffs using presidential authority available under other laws, including a new temporary 10% global tariff that he said he would sign on Friday.
The court’s decision represents a rare check on this president’s broad use of executive authority.
A majority of the justices over the past year have shown a willingness to allow Trump to press ahead with his agenda, particularly on immigration and reshaping the federal government, even as legal challenges work their way through the court system.
