Supreme Court Tariff Ruling Could Be Days Away

The Supreme Court has scheduled an opinion day for Friday (Jan. 9).

And as Bloomberg News noted in a report Tuesday (Jan. 6), that’s a sign that a decision on White House tariffs could be coming soon. While the court never says what rulings are coming, the report notes an opinion by the tariffs is possible given the expedited manner in which the justices have so far handled the case.

The case in question involves President Donald Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs from last April, which placed duties of 10% to 50% on most imports.

“We have a big Supreme Court case,” Trump said during a speech to House Republicans Tuesday, per Bloomberg. “I hope they do what’s good for our country. I hope they do the right thing. The president has to be able to wheel and deal with tariffs.”

Trump has claimed he has the authority to institute tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which gives the executive authority to “regulate” the “importation” of goods from foreign nations or individuals in response to an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to national security, foreign policy or the economy.

As covered here in November, there is skepticism among the justices about this argument. Several of the court’s conservative majority, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, joined their liberal colleagues in sharply questioning the government’s chief counsel in the case, Solicitor General D. John Sauer.

“Is it your contention that every country needed to be tariffed because of threats to the defense and industrial base?” Barrett asked. “I mean, Spain? France? I mean, I could see it with some countries, but explain to me why, as many countries needed to be subject to the reciprocal tariff policy as are.”

Sauer argued that the case is not about the power to tax but the power to conduct foreign affairs, stressing that what Trump had imposed was “a regulatory tariff, not a tax.”

But Chief Justice John Roberts also expressed some doubts about Sauer’s argument. The tariffs were an “imposition of taxes on Americans and that has always been the core power of Congress,” he said.

The case before the Supreme Court was filed by a dozen states, a wine importer and an educational toy manufacturer. Hundreds of small businesses separately joined amicus filings that call the White House’s actions unlawful, contending that the tariffs have forced them to raise prices and reduce staffing levels.

Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” last month that he still expects the court to side with Trump.

But if the justices rule against the administration, it would be “pretty unlikely that they’re going to call for widespread refunds because it would be an administrative problem to get those refunds out there,” Hassett added.