The US Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump exceeded his authority in imposing sweeping tariffs under emergency powers.
In a ruling delivered on Friday, the Supreme Court said: “Our task today is to decide only whether the power to “regulate . . . importation,” as granted to the President in IEEPA, embraces the power to impose tariffs. It does not.”
America’s top court has been examining whether the US administration exceeded its authority in using the International Emergency Powers Act to impose tariffs, the economic centrepiece of Trump’s second term.
The case was brought by groups of American businesses, joined by 12 US states, that argued they had been harmed by the tariffs.
Trump returned to the White House last year vowing to use tariffs to remake a global trade order that he claimed had “ripped off” the US for decades.
Trump announced his tariff regime on “liberation day” last April, sparking weeks of turmoil in financial markets and alarming US allies.
Although he has since backed away from imposing some of the most severe duties, the US ended 2025 with an effective tariff rate of more than 10 per cent — the highest since the second world war.
Stock markets have recovered in the intervening months to hit record highs, but polls indicate that many Americans think the tariffs are hurting the country’s economy.