The Supreme Court of the United States ruled Friday that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give the president the power to impose sweeping tariffs on imported goods.
The case centered on whether the president could use the 1977 emergency law to place broad import taxes after declaring national emergencies.
The justices said the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the authority to set taxes and duties on imports. While IEEPA allows a president to regulate certain economic activity during emergencies, the Court said it does not clearly authorize creating new tariffs.
“We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs. We claim only, as we must, the limited role assigned to us by Article III of the Constitution. Fulfilling that role, we hold that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts.
The ruling blocks the tariff actions taken under that law and reinforces that major trade taxes must come from Congress unless lawmakers clearly say otherwise.
