Supreme USA The Court on Friday overturned most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, a move that could result in more than $175 billion in tariff refunds for U.S. companies. In a 6-3 decision, the justices ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) – the law the Trump administration used to justify many of its sweeping global tariffs – does not give the president taxing powers and that tariffs are a form of tax on imports.
Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has introduced a variety of tariffs on almost every country in the world. Most of these tariffs, including last April’s confused so-called “cross-tariffs” that sought to tax even islands with only penguin populations, were authorized under IEEPA in accordance with the administration’s orders.
From the beginning, lawyers questioned whether IEEPA would cover tariffs at all. In his opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote about the tariff reduction: “It is also telling that in the half-century of IEEPA’s existence, no president has invoked the statute to impose any tariffs, let alone tariffs of this size and scope.” Instead, the president “must establish clear congressional authority to perform this function,” he wrote.
Friday’s decision represents a significant and occasional Supreme Court pushback against the Trump administration’s volatile policies. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh did not dissent.
On Friday morning, during a White House breakfast with governors, Trump reportedly called the ruling a “disgrace” and said he had a contingency plan. According to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
The Supreme Court’s ruling does not cover all tariffs announced in the last two years. For example, sector-specific regulations for steel, aluminum and copper are not affected because they were imposed by different presidential authorities.
“Small businesses are rightly concerned that the administration will respond to this legal failure by simply imposing the same tariff policy in a different way,” Dan Anthony, executive director of the tiny business coalition We Pay the Tariffs, said in a statement. “Reimposing tariffs under different legal approaches would have the same destructive effect.”
However, it will not be uncomplicated for the administration to immediately replace these tariffs, as other relevant policies often involve their own procedures and lengthy trade investigations before tariffs can be ordered.
The ruling also begins the process of refunding the huge amount of customs duties collected last year. Economists they estimated that since February 2025, IEEPA tariff policies have raised over $175 billion. In January, anticipating the Supreme Court’s decision, Trump posted on Truth Social that the refund process “would be a complete mess and almost impossible for our country to pay.”
Many enormous companies, including Costco, Prada, BYD and Goodyear, have filed lawsuits against the federal government demanding repayment of the tariffs. Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services company run by the sons of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, also gave its customers the opportunity to bet that tariffs would be eliminated, as first reported by WIRED in July 2025.