In the first blockbuster of its term, the Supreme Court finally decided the tariffs case—and it struck them down. It’s a major rebuke of President Donald Trump’s signature policy, and its effect will extend to every corner of the economy. Yet Trump has already pledged to revive the tariffs—and the Court may have left the door open.
Not all of Trump’s tariffs were at issue in the case. For example, his industry-specific tariffs remain untouched. Instead, the case invalidated Trump’s country-by-country reciprocal tariffs, which the president imposed on dozens of nations starting last April.
In 170 pages of opinions, the justices were sharply divided. Three conservatives on the Court—John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett—said the challenged tariffs were illegal for one reason. The three liberal justices—Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson—said they were illegal for a different reason. The three remaining conservatives—Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas—dissented, concluding that the tariffs were lawful.
