The US Supreme Court on Friday nullified a majority of President Donald Trump’s import duties, a judgment that could facilitate over $175 billion in duty reimbursements for American enterprises. In a 6-3 verdict, the justices determined that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)—the statute invoked by the Trump administration to validate many of his broad global levies—does not confer upon the president the prerogative of taxation, and that import duties constitute a form of tax on inbound goods.
Since the commencement of his subsequent term, Trump has instituted a diverse range of levies, targeting virtually every nation worldwide. A majority of these duties, including the disorderly purported “reciprocal tariffs” last April that sought to tax even islands with only penguin populations, were sanctioned under IEEPA according to the administration’s executive mandates.
Initially, legal scholars questioned whether IEEPA was intended to encompass levies at all. Chief Justice John Roberts, in his opinion annulling the duties, wrote, “It is also instructive that in IEEPA’s five decades of operation, no President has invoked the statute to impose any levies, much less duties of this magnitude and scope.” Instead, the president “must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it,” he affirmed.
The decision issued on Friday represents a notable and uncommon challenge from the Supreme Court against the Trump administration’s volatile policies. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh disagreed with the majority.
During a morning meal at the White House with governors Friday, Trump was reportedly heard calling the ruling an “outrage” and stated that he possessed a contingency plan, as reported by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
The Supreme Court’s verdict does not encompass all the duties declared in the past two years. For instance, the sector-specific levies on steel, aluminum, and copper remain unaffected, as they were imposed under different presidential authorities.
“Small businesses are justifiably concerned that the administration will react to this judicial setback by merely reimplementing the identical duty strategy through alternative methods,” Dan Anthony, managing director of the small business coalition We Pay the Tariffs, remarked in a statement. “Levies reintroduced using distinct legal avenues would have the same damaging impact.”
Substituting these levies immediately will not be straightforward for the administration, however, as other pertinent strategies often entail their own distinct processes and extensive trade investigations before such duties can be mandated.
The ruling also initiates the procedure for reimbursing an enormous sum of duties amassed in the past year. Economic analysts have calculated that over $175 billion has been collected since February 2025 under policies linked to IEEPA. In January, anticipating the High Court’s verdict, Trump posted on Truth Social that the repayment process “would be utter chaos, and virtually impractical for our nation to afford.”
Numerous prominent corporations, including Costco, Prada, BYD, and Goodyear, have launched legal proceedings against the national government, demanding duty repayments. Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm operated by the sons of US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, has also created avenues for its clientele to speculate that the levies would be invalidated, WIRED initially revealed in July 2025.
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