Supreme Court appears skeptical about Trump’s tariffs

President Trump’s global tariffs appeared to be on shaky ground after Supreme Court justices expressed skepticism during a hearing on Wednesday about his authority to impose sweeping measures on countries around the world.

The nine Supreme Court justices are weighing whether Mr Trump lawfully invoked his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to levy the global tariffs without Congress’s approval, as well as a set of tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico related to fentanyl.

The Trump administration’s top lawyer faced sharp questioning, including from some members of the court’s conservative wing, during the hearing. Lawyers representing the tariff challengers were also pressed by some justices on what kind of limitations courts could impose on core presidential powers.

Administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, were among those in the audience, as President Trump opted not to attend.

The hearing ran nearly three hours, in what has become one of the most consequential economic and political cases to come before the high court in decades. Challengers, a group of small businesses and states, say he exceeded his legal powers. Lower courts have agreed, and now it is up to the Supreme Court to decide the ultimate fate of a cornerstone of the president’s agenda.

If the Supreme Court overturns the tariffs, the Trump administration has warned it will need to repay tens of billions of dollars it has already collected. Such a ruling would also undercut a core legal justification for a large amount of Trump’s tariffs, and possibly remove leverage in trade talks.

President Trump has been adamant that the Supreme Court let his tariffs stand, and even ended trade negotiations with Canada, when the country played commercials showing former President Ronald Reagan seeming to be against tariffs. Mr Trump said that those commercials were aimed at swaying the Supreme Court.