US Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs in 6-3 ruling

The US Supreme Court has struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs in a 6-3 ruling, dealing the biggest legal defeat of his second term.

The ruling invalidates many, but not all, of Trump’s tariffs. He could still seek to reimpose some tariffs using other laws.

The US Supreme Court’s Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a 1977 law Trump used to justify the tariffs, does not authorise the president to impose tariffs.

“The Framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the Executive Branch,” Roberts wrote, with the majority finding that the Constitution gives Congress the power to impose taxes, which include tariffs.

Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, announced in April 2025, sent global markets into turmoil with the President imposing a baseline 10 percent duty on imports from virtually every trading partner, with dozens of countries facing steeper rates.

Antigua and Barbuda and much of the rest of the Caribbean would have fallen under the minimum 10 percent threshold if the Supreme Court decided to uphold Trump’s order.

The president had invoked IEEPA, declaring national emergencies over both drug trafficking and large trade deficits, arguing the law granted him authority to respond through tariffs of any amount and duration.

Roberts wrote that the IEEPA did not give the president power to impose tariffs unilaterally, unconstrained by procedural limits.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissented with Kavanaugh saying that the ruling, raised concerns about the financial implications of the ruling by arguing that the ruling created a potential practical chaos for the government to refund those tariffs already collected.

Reuters reported that more than $175 billion in tariffs may need to be refunded to importers, citing an estimate from Penn-Wharton Budget Model economists.