The Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s tariffs on Friday, ruling that the president exceeded his authority in imposing the taxes on imported goods and delivering a serious blow to a key tool in the administration’s economic policy agenda.
While not completely unexpected given the skeptical reception of the justices to the tariffs decision during their fall oral arguments, the judgment is nonetheless significant, experts said.
“The Supreme Court has not stood up to President Trump’s aggressive executive actions in a sustained way, so today’s ruling is more of an exception than a rule,” said Dan Urman, director of online and hybrid programs at Northeastern School of Law.
Asha Sundaram, chair of economics at Northeastern, agreed that the ruling demonstrated the resiliency of the American courts.
“It’s in a sense a signal that some checks and balances exist and that the institutions are working the way we hope they would,” Sundaram said.
President Trump had promised to enact tariffs as a major part of his second-term economic agenda, and claimed that a 1977 emergency statute called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act , or IEEPA, enabled him to do so without Congressional approval.
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