Trump imposed sweeping tariffs in 2025 under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law that lets presidents block or regulate transactions in a national emergency. On 20 February 2026 the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that the law does not authorize tariffs. Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the majority, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Barrett and Jackson; Justices Kavanaugh, Thomas and Alito dissented. The Constitution gives the taxing power to Congress, the majority said, and the law does not use the word “tariff.” [1]

The tariffs came in two sets. Citing drug trafficking, Trump put a 25 percent duty on most Canadian and Mexican goods and 10 percent on most Chinese goods. Citing trade deficits, he imposed “reciprocal” tariffs of at least 10 percent on imports from all trading partners, with higher rates for dozens of countries. Chinese goods at one point faced a combined rate of 145 percent, the Court noted. [1]

The ruling did not touch tariffs imposed under other laws, such as the steel and aluminum duties under Section 232, which Congress delegated explicitly.

Trump has said repeatedly that foreign countries pay the tariffs. Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated in February 2026 that nearly 90 percent of the economic burden of the 2025 tariffs fell on U.S. firms and consumers. That is one estimate, with stated methods, but it matches other studies. [2]