Supreme Court Agrees to Speedily Review Trump’s Tariffs

The Supreme Court announced Tuesday it will take up whether President Trump can use emergency powers to justify sweeping tariffs on trading partners across the globe, agreeing to the administration’s request to hear its appeal — and fast.

The expedited schedule will have the justices take the bench for oral arguments in the first week of November, a late addition to the calendar.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer has minced no words in describing the stakes, telling the justices that Trump’s tariffs are his “most significant economic and foreign-policy initiative.”

The justices will hear appeals in several underlying cases that concern whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) authorizes Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

Lower courts have rejected the administration’s arguments, but the administration has held out hope that the conservative-majority Supreme Court will rescue the tariffs, quickly appealing to the justices and urging them to move with speed.

Enacted in 1977, IEEPA authorizes the president to impose necessary economic sanctions during an emergency to combat an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”

Trump first invoked the law in February, citing an emergency over fentanyl to impose tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico. He later established an emergency over trade deficits to implement his global “reciprocal” tariffs on trading partners across the globe and pressure them into trade deals.

In a 7-4 ruling last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sided with a Democratic-led states and small businesses by invalidating Trump’s tariffs. The Supreme Court agreed to take up the administration’s appeal in that case after the challengers didn’t object.

“Fundamentally, these cases come down to whether the president has virtually unlimited power to impose taxes in the form of tariffs on the American people, much like an absolute monarch,” Ilya Somin, a George Mason University law professor part of the businesses’ legal team, wrote in a blog post following the court’s announcement.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield (D), who is leading the coalition of Democratic states, said it will be the first time in more than a decade that Oregon will argue a case before the high court.

“It couldn’t happen at a more important time, because we have families, households across our state, across our country that are experiencing increase in the cost of average household goods,” Rayfield said in a video posted to social media.

The Supreme Court additionally took up a similar petition filed by another group of small businesses challenging Trump’s tariffs. Those businesses had won before a federal district judge in Washington, D.C., but urged the justices to immediately get involved to settle the issue.

Trump’s tariff policy can stay in place until the Supreme Court rules on the sweeping case.