{"id":57734,"date":"2026-02-21T02:56:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T02:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57734"},"modified":"2026-02-21T02:56:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T02:56:58","slug":"supreme-court-torpedoes-donald-trumps-tariff-regime-in-check-on-executive-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57734","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court torpedoes Donald Trump\u2019s tariff regime in check on executive power"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

America\u2019s top court dealt a traumatic blow to Donald Trump\u2019s second term in office on Friday, striking at the heart of his economic plans by ruling most of his tariffs illegal as the president lashed out at \u201cdisloyal\u201d justices beholden to \u201cforeign interests\u201d. <\/p>\n

The 6-3 Supreme Court opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts was damning for Trump, halting his flagship trade policy and setting new constraints on his use of executive power, which he has sought to expand since returning to the White House last year. <\/p>\n

The president berated the justices as \u201cdisloyal to our constitution\u201d, vowed to continue his trade wars, and on Friday night signed off on another 10 per cent global tariff to come into force next week, threatening more turmoil and uncertainty.<\/p>\n

But those levies are time-limited and his administration now faces the possibility of being compelled to repay billions of dollars raised by his invalidated tariff regime.<\/p>\n

The ruling, ahead of next week\u2019s State of the Union address, comes on the heels of disappointing GDP data and consistently poor approval ratings for the president that have raised alarm bells among Republicans about their prospects in the November midterm elections. <\/p>\n

It also marked the latest sign of expanding resistance to Trump and his plans both domestically and internationally, from fellow western leaders balking at his threats against Greenland, to members of Congress forcing the release of documents related to late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, to Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell fighting a criminal probe against him as an attack on the central bank\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n

The ruling was especially potent given the Supreme Court\u2019s conservative majority, which has given Trump broad latitude to act with fewer restraints in other areas, including his immunity from prosecution and his immigration crackdown. <\/p>\n

But on trade policy, the court drew a clear red line in the opposite direction, saying that the president\u2019s use of emergency tariffs, which he deployed extensively to reshape America\u2019s relationship with the global economy and wield diplomatic leverage over countries, had violated the US constitution. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge blow to the centrality of how he thinks about his power\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009to try to bully other countries into making deals with him,\u201d said Sarah Binder, a professor of political science at George Washington University. \u201cThe Supreme Court in one fell swoop said \u2018not so quick, not so easy\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Although oral arguments in the case late last year had suggested that the court was leaning against Trump\u2019s tariffs, his reaction was vitriolic. <\/p>\n

The justices were \u201cfools and lapdogs\u201d as well as \u201cunpatriotic and disloyal\u201d, Trump said at a hastily arranged press conference at the White House. The president alleged that they were \u201cswayed by foreign interests\u201d and said other countries were \u201cdancing in the streets\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed\u2009for not having the courage to do what\u2019s right for our country,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The clear limits imposed on Trump\u2019s power will bruise his ego, just as he seeks to put his personal stamp on Washington. He has added his name to the Kennedy Center and demolished part of the White House to build a new ballroom. On Thursday, the Department of Justice unfurled a large banner of the president\u2019s face on its headquarters. <\/p>\n

It also marks a humbling moment for Trump as he weighs a war on Iran \u2014 weeks after launching a special operations raid on Venezuela and seizing control of the country\u2019s oil \u2014 defying the constitutional authority of Congress to approve the use of force against US enemies. <\/p>\n

Julian Zelizer, a professor of political history at Princeton University, said the tariff ruling was \u201cthe biggest decision thus far, rebuking his expansive vision of presidential power\u201d.<\/p>\n

Zelizer added: \u201cDoes this mean that the imperial presidency has been restrained? No. Other Supreme Court decisions have empowered him and he will now try to find new paths to achieve the same goals. But this comes at a moment when there is significant pushback against his administration in many levels of government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court\u2019s opinion leaves Trump scrambling to implement a backup plan to use other legislation to preserve some tariffs. The 10 per cent tariff he announced on Friday to address what the White House described as \u201cfundamental international payment problems\u201d is based on section 122 of a 1974 law that allows the president to set import restrictions for up to 150 days. It is set to come into force on Tuesday, a minute after midnight, with a limited amount of exemptions for goods such as critical minerals, some metals, and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n

Trump also vowed to launch new trade investigations that could lead to further tariffs later, and defiantly said that these could be even more severe than the regime struck down as illegal by the court. <\/p>\n

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the administration intended to \u201chonour\u201d deals it had struck with trading partners \u2014\u00a0and expected them to do the same. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor a year I\u2019ve been telling them that regardless of the direction of this litigation, we will impose tariffs at levels that they agree to,\u201d Greer told Fox News. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent claimed the new measures meant there would be \u201clittle change\u201d in the amount the finance ministry would receive in tariff revenue this year.<\/p>\n

But already, US businesses are gearing up to demand refunds from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

According to the Budget Lab at Yale, tariff revenue based on emergency powers was $142bn in 2025 \u2014 about 80 per cent of its estimate\u00a0for all new tariff revenue raised last year. <\/p>\n

Trump waived away the imminent threat of repayments. \u201cThey take months and months to write an opinion and they don\u2019t even discuss that point,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cWe\u2019ll end up being in court for the next five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s political career has been shaped by his unapologetic embrace of tariffs, defying mainstream Republican orthodoxy in a bid to protect American workers left behind by globalisation.<\/p>\n

He used established US trade laws to launch battles against China and others in his first term, but in his second term the president has taken his protectionist agenda to a new level, including using emergency powers to impose the taxes. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our declaration of economic independence,\u201d Trump exclaimed on his so-called liberation day last April, as he set high tariffs that rattled global markets.<\/p>\n

Within a few weeks, Trump paused many levies in the face of the market turmoil, and then watered them down with trade agreements and exemptions.<\/p>\n

On Friday, he was confronted with the sobering legal defeat. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe president took a serious risk in using [emergency powers] as the legal basis for many of his tariff threats and hikes, and this gamble did not pay off,\u201d said Wendy Cutler, a former US trade official and senior vice-president at the Asia Society Policy Institute.<\/p>\n

Even some Republicans appeared relieved that the justices had set boundaries on the president. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe founders\u2019 system of checks and balances remains strong, nearly 250 years later,\u201d said John Curtis, the Republican senator from Utah. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s top court dealt a traumatic blow to Donald Trump\u2019s second term in office on Friday, striking at the heart of his economic plans by ruling most of his tariffs illegal as the president lashed out at \u201cdisloyal\u201d justices beholden to \u201cforeign interests\u201d. The 6-3 Supreme Court opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-57734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court torpedoes Donald Trump\u2019s tariff regime in check on executive power | Prosfunds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"America\u2019s top court dealt a traumatic blow to Donald Trump\u2019s second term in office on Friday, striking at the heart of his economic plans by ruling most\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57734\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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