SCOTUS Blocking of Trump’s “Emergency” Tariffs Is a Small But Meaningful Check on a Lawless President

Today, the Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to implement sweeping tariffs was unlawful. Global Trade Watch director Melinda St. Louis issued the following statement:

“The Supreme Court’s decision today deals a blow to Trump’s illegal, chaotic tariffs that have been used to benefit powerful corporate interests over working people.

“When used lawfully and as part of a wider strategic policy, tariffs can help protect U.S. jobs, raise labor and environmental standards, and correct corporate-driven trade imbalances that harm workers and communities. But Trump’s approach was never strategic, constructive, or rooted in concern for working people.

“These sweeping tariffs were deployed to bully other countries to benefit his corporate cronies and to fuel anti-humanitarian political goals, not to uplift the people harmed by decades of corporate-rigged trade policy. While today’s decision is a meaningful check on a specific abuse of power, Trump has made clear that he plans to use other tariff authorities to barrel ahead with his global bullying and secretive dealmaking.

“Congress and the courts should exercise their constitutional checks and balances over all of Trump’s authoritarian power grabs and should demand a trade policy that prioritizes the lives of working people over the billionaires that this administration has been carrying water for since day one.”