Supreme Court Rules White House Lacks Authority for Billions of Dollars in Tariffs

(Updated at 4:32 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, with comments from White House news conference.)

The US Supreme Court on Friday struck down tariffs imposed by President Trump on an array of trading partners, ruling that a law granting the chief executive broad economic powers to address national emergencies doesn’t cover what amount to taxes.

The framers of the Constitution gave Congress sole “access to the pockets of the people,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote on behalf of the six-person majority. 

At a White House news conference on Friday afternoon, Trump called the decision “deeply disappointing” while praising the three justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh, who sided with the administration.

‘Strict Limits’

While Trump has long maintained that tariffs would benefit the US economy and be paid by trading partners, recent data from the New York Fed show that US consumers and businesses have shouldered nearly 90% of the cost.

Midsized firms, in particular, which largely lack the ability to dictate trade terms or shuffle their supply chains, paid roughly triple the tariff payments they shouldered in 2024, according to research from JPMorgan Chase, the largest US lender. 

“When Congress has delegated its tariff powers, it has done so in explicit terms and subject to strict limits,” Roberts wrote in the court’s opinion. The administration’s interpretation of the law, however, would give “the president power to unilaterally impose unbounded tariffs and change them at will.”

In the half century since the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (the law that the administration relied on for its tariffs) was passed, “no president has invoked the statute to impose any tariffs, let alone tariffs of this magnitude and scope,” the high court ruled. “That ‘lack of historical precedent, coupled with the breadth of authority’ that the president now claims, suggests that the tariffs extend beyond the president’s “legitimate reach.”

The 6-3 majority ruling is one that Trump fought to avoid. The administration’s lawyers argued in filings that the court faced a stark choice: “With tariffs, we are a rich nation; without tariffs, we are a poor nation,” they wrote. “The President has stated that ‘[o]ne year ago, the United States was a dead country, and now, because of the trillions of dollars being paid by countries that have so badly abused us, America is a strong, financially viable, and respected country.’”

Data collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond show that the US collected $287 billion from tariffs last year, the first of Trump’s second term. Of that total, which marked a nearly three-fold increase from the year before, about $165 million came from levies imposed under the Emergency Economic Powers Act — slightly more than half, according to an analysis by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

On Friday afternoon, Trump maintained his confidence in the legitimacy of tariffs, promising to find ways to use them that would comply with the ruling.

“This was an important case to me, more as a symbol of national economic security, and also I would say, just for our country itself,” he told reporters. “The good news is that there are methods, statutes, practices and authorities, as recognized by the entire court in this terrible decision and also as recognized by Congress, which they refer to, that are even stronger than the IEEPA tariffs, available to me as president.”

In fact, some of Trump’s existing tariffs are unaffected by Friday’s ruling:

• Levies on metals, including charges as high as 50% on steel, aluminum and some copper products, were imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the president to restrict imports if the Commerce Secretary finds in an investigation that they threaten national security.
• Levies of 25% on imports of vehicles and automobile parts were also set under Section 232.

Additionally, Trump said he would use Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose broad tariffs of up to 15% without approval from Congres, to set a 10% global levy, pending the investigations required to impose tariffs under other statutes. Section 122 tariffs expire after five months.

No Doubt: “We’re going forward,” Trump said. “We will be able to take in more money. There will no longer be doubt, because there was always doubt.”