The top court in the US has ruled against US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, which went into effect last year.
The Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s tariffs in a 6-3 majority.
The three liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, joined by three conservative justices, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and John Roberts, voted to strike down the tariffs.
Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.
The decision impacts some, but not all of Trump’s tariffs.
The tariffs affected by Friday’s ruling:
The country-wide tariffs Trump imposed on most of the world.
The ruling centres on Trump’s use of a 1977 law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), that gives the president the power to “regulate” trade in response to an emergency.
Trump first invoked it in February 2025 to tax goods from China, Mexico and Canada, saying drug trafficking from those countries constituted an emergency.
He deployed it again in April, ordering levies from 10% to 50% on goods from almost every country in the world. He said the US trade deficit – where the US imports more than it exports – posed an “extraordinary and unusual threat”.
The unaffected tariffs
The industry-specific steel, aluminium, lumber and automotive tariffs, which were implemented under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, citing national-security concerns.
This is a developing story
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