US supreme court not to issue ruling on Trump’s tariffs

The US supreme court will not issue a ruling on Friday in a ‍major case testing the legality of President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.

The justices issued one ruling on Friday in a criminal case. The court does not announce in advance what cases will ‌be decided.

The challenge to Trump’s tariffs marks a major test of presidential powers as well as of the ⁠court’s willingness to check some of the Republican president’s far-reaching assertions of authority ‌since he ‍returned to office in January 2025.

The outcome will also impact the global economy. During arguments in the case heard by the court on November 5th, conservative and liberal justices appeared to cast ⁠doubt on the legality of the tariffs, Mr which Trump imposed by invoking a 1977 law ⁠meant for use during national ⁠emergencies. Trump’s administration is appealing rulings by lower courts that he overstepped his authority.

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Mr Trump has said tariffs have made the United States ‍stronger financially. In a social media post on January 2nd, Trump said a Supreme Court ruling against the tariffs would be a “terrible blow” to the United States.

[ Trump’s tariffs: what has happened so farOpens in new window ]

Mr Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on goods imported from individual countries - nearly every foreign trading partner - to address what he called a national emergency related to US trade deficits.

Explainer

What are tariffs?

Tariffs - or import taxes - have been a central part of US president Donald Trump’s economic policy.

He has used a number of old pieces of US legislation to allow him to impose these tariffs without getting approval from the US Congress, as would normally have been done in many cases.

The so-called blanket tariffs - imposed on many goods coming from a country, rather than just specific products - have been imposed using a 1977 Act based on a state of emergency existing.

A number of US businesses appealed to the courts saying Trump has exceeded his authority using this legislation. Lower courts ruled in their ruling and this was appealed to the supreme court.

Other tariffs on specific sectors have been applied using different legislation and the Trump administration has said there are other ways to legislate for the blanket tariffs, but experts say this will not be straightforward.

He ‌invoked the same ‌law to impose tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, citing the trafficking of the often-abused painkiller fentanyl and illicit drugs into the United States as ‌a national emergency.

The challenges to the tariffs in the cases before the Supreme Court were brought ⁠by businesses affected by the tariffs and 12 US states, most of them Democratic-governed.