In a 6-3 decision, the US Supreme Court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.
“The Government thus concedes, as it must, that the President enjoys no inherent authority to impose tariffs during peacetime,” the Supreme Court ruled.
“If Congress were to relinquish that weapon [the power of the purse] to another branch, a ‘reasonable interpreter’ would expect it to do so ‘clearly,” the decision says.
The decision says the Constitution’s framers specifically vested the power to lay and collect taxes and duties exclusively with the Legislative Branch (Article I, Section 8). The government conceded that the President possesses no inherent peacetime authority to impose tariffs without Congress.
Chief Justice Roberts’ majority opinion applied the “major questions doctrine,” asserting that a delegation of the core congressional power of the purse requires “clear congressional authorization”. The Court ruled that such a massive delegation of economic and political power cannot be read into ambiguous or vague statutory text. Gorsuch, and Barrett also leaned on that reasoning.
Roberts wrote that the stakes here “dwarf those of other major questions cases,” noting the government’s own claims that the tariffs involved trillions of dollars.
The plurality also rejected the government’s arguments for carve-outs: there is no emergency-statute exception to the doctrine, no foreign-affairs exception, and — in a memorable line — “no major questions exception to the major questions doctrine.”
Shares of Nike are a pretty good barometer on how the market sees tariffs holding up.
In terms of dissent, Justice Kavanaugh seemed to pivot to advice on how to reconstitute them with other authorities but we could see them shut down as well though he said the decision “might not substantially constrain a President’s ability to order tariffs going forward”.
To be clear, the existing Section 232 tariffs (steel, aluminum, autos, copper) and Section 301 tariffs on China are untouched by this ruling and already cover a substantial portion of trade. The ongoing Section 232 investigations into semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and critical minerals could yield new sector-specific tariffs within months.
The question is whether Trump now tries to use Section 338. Every alternative authority is either sector-specific (232), country-and-practice-specific (301), capped and temporary (122), or legally uncertain (338).
Notably, the Court said the President must “point to clear congressional authorization” to justify his extraordinary assertion of that power.
Back to refunds, this actually looks like they’re coming. The government stipulated in January 2026 that it would not contest the Court of International Trade’s authority to order reliquidation. However there are enormous practical and political complications. Some importers who didn’t file protective suits or preserve their claims may find themselves unable to recover.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.