Supreme Court Hands Trump Stunning Loss Over Tariffs

“There is no exception to the major issues doctrine for emergency laws. The fact that tariffs involve foreign affairs also does not make the doctrine inapplicable. The Framers gave ‘Congress alone’ the authority to impose tariffs in times of peace,” Roberts wrote. “And the foreign affairs implications of tariffs do not make it more likely that Congress will abandon its tariff power using vague language or without prudent limits.

“Accordingly, the President must ‘indicate clear congressional authorization’ to justify his extraordinary assertion of this power,” Roberts wrote. “He can’t.”

Roberts was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Kentanji Brown Jackson and Amy Coney Barrett. In his concurring opinion, Gorsuch wrote: “Whatever else may be said about Congress’s work in IEEPA, it has not clearly ceded to the President the broad tariff authority he seeks to exercise. »