Supreme Court blocks Trump's emergency tariffs, billions in refunds may be owed

Source: Ars Technica

Ruling and legal reasoning

• The Court, in a 6‑3 decision, remanded the cases to lower courts, concluding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not give the President power to impose tariffs.
• Chief Justice John Roberts authored the opinion, joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
• The opinion states that only Congress has the power of the purse, and any exceptions are “bound by explicit terms and subject to strict limits.”
• Roberts wrote that the government’s reading of IEEPA to allow the President to unilaterally impose “unlimited amount and duration” tariffs would represent a “transformative expansion of the President’s authority over tariff policy.” He noted that in IEEPA’s half‑century of existence, no President has invoked the statute to impose tariffs of this magnitude.
• The Supreme Court ruled Friday that former President Donald Trump was not authorized to implement emergency tariffs intended to block illegal drug flows and offset trade deficits.

Potential financial impact

• Analysts had previously suggested that the ruling could force the government to issue refunds of up to $1 billion Ars Technica.
• A newer estimate from economists, reported by Reuters, projects that more than $175 billion could be “at risk of having to be refunded.” Reuters article.

This story is breaking and will be updated.