The Supreme Court has ruled that President Trump’s Tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were unlawful.
By LauraAboli
The Supreme Court has ruled that President Trump’s tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were unlawful.
The majority says the statute does not authorize the President to impose duties simply by invoking emergency powers.
But Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. From the official dissent (February 20, 2026):
“Congress authorized the President to ‘regulate . . . importation.’ 50 U.S.C. §1702(a)(1)(B). Throughout American history, the authority to ‘regulate importation’ has been understood to include the authority to impose duties on imports.”
Thomas goes further:
“The meaning of that phrase was beyond doubt by the time that Congress enacted this statute, shortly after President Nixon’s highly publicized duties on imports were upheld based on identical language.”
In plain English:
When Congress passed this law, everyone understood that “regulate importation” included tariffs, because Nixon had already done it under the same language, and courts upheld it.
Thomas concludes:
“The statute that the President relied on therefore authorized him to impose the duties on imports at issue in these cases.”
The majority says emergency economic powers do not extend this far, Thomas says the text, the history, and precedent say they absolutely do.
This decision doesn’t just affect Trump, it reshapes how much authority any future President has when responding to economic threats.
