February 20, 2026
In a bombshell decision – and the biggest defeat so far for President Trump — the supreme court just ruled that no- Trump cannot impose whatever tariffs he wants — whenever he wants, on every country in the world. They say the way he’s been imposing those tariffs is illegal. But that doesn’t’ mean Trump is going to stop using these tariffs.
The Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion and he was joined by conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett for parts of his opinion along with the three liberal justices. And throughout this opinion – the majority of the justices say every single argument that trump used during oral arguments to justify imposing these tariffs using the international emergency economic powers act – or IEEPA – “failed”. See Trump has been arguing that there is a national security emergency when it comes to trade deficits and fentanyl…so he formally declared them national emergencies. And he said the way he reads IEEPA – if he’s declared those national emergencies – IEEPA gives him the power to impose whatever tariffs he wants without approval from congress. The supreme court said… wrong.
As I have been reporting repeatedly for more than a year — the fact is tariffs are a tax. And in today’s opinion the supreme court said repeatedly the constitution of the United States gives the power to tax to congress – not the president. The Chief Justice wrote “the president asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it. … we hold that IEEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs.
Now there are two important pieces you need to understand.
Number one –just because the Supreme Court ruled today that trump cannot use IEEPA to impose these tariffs doesn’t mean he can’t try to go about it another way. In fact trump already has hinted that he’s absolutely going to try and impose tariffs perhaps using another law or another authority. It’s unclear which one and its unclear if that authority would give him the ability to impose tariffs as widely as he has already – but there are other laws that trump will absolutely try.
And number two – now that the Supreme Court says Trump’s tariffs under IEEPA are illegal — what happens to all the money $200 billion that’s been collected from you and US businesses who have already paid those tariffs? Will the US government be forced to return all that money to those who paid it? How would that work? And what is going to happen to the tariff money that President Trump has been boasting he’s already spent? Well – the Supreme Court majority gave *no* guidance on that – all they said is that this case will return to the lower federal court in the District of Columbia for further litigation. But in his dissent – Justice Brett Kavanaugh – who was joined by Justices Alito and Thomas said it’s not really the Supreme Court’s business how their ruling plays out in the real world – they’re just there to interpret the law– but Kavanaugh acknowledged the fall out from it… is likely going to be a mess.
Read the tariff ruling here.
