US Supreme Court puts tariff case on fast track; levy collection continues
Trump administration claims a reversal could prompt retaliation, refund demands from nations facing hefty tariffs since early this year
The US Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to review a ruling that struck down most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, fast-tracking a case that will determine whether the duties – still in effect – stand or fall by year’s end.
The decision sets up a high-stakes test of presidential power on trade, a hallmark of Trump’s economic agenda.
The justices will hear a one-hour oral argument in early November, with the court’s 6–3 conservative majority – including three Trump appointees – poised to shape the outcome.
The “America First” president has repeatedly invoked emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs on US trade partners, framing his country’s fentanyl-related deaths and trade deficits as emergencies.
In February, he imposed a 25 per cent levy on fentanyl-related imports from Mexico, Canada, and China. Since April, when the president imposed additional “reciprocal” tariffs on all partners, the US has continued collecting duties while cutting deals with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Britain.
But on August 30, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a 7–4 decision, ruled that Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act [IEEPA] to impose tariffs on nearly all trading partners exceeded his authority. The court asked the government to approach the US Congress.