A tense courtroom fell silent as the Supreme Court of the United States delivered a major blow to President Donald Trump’s trade policy, ruling that his sweeping global tariffs were illegal.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored the majority opinion, carefully read out the decision, explaining that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) did not give the president the authority to impose broad-based import tariffs, CNN reported.
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Roberts made it clear from the bench that if Congress had intended to hand over such an “extraordinary power” to the president, it would have done so explicitly.
The court held that IEEPA “contains no reference to tariffs or duties,” a key line from Roberts’ opinion, as per AFP news agency.
The ruling saw conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett side with Roberts and the three liberal justices, while Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.
{{/usCountry}}The ruling saw conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett side with Roberts and the three liberal justices, while Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.
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The judgment was a “stinging rebuke” to one of Trump’s signature economic policies, marking his biggest defeat at the Supreme Court since returning to the White House, the AFP report noted.
The atmosphere outside the courtroom shifted quickly after the verdict, with Trump lashing out at the justices within hours, calling them "fools and lapdogs" and alleging that the court was influenced by foreign interests, ANI reported.
However, even as the legal setback was unfolding, Trump was already onto his next move, preparing alternative tariff mechanisms to keep pressure on his trading partners, per CNN.
How this impacts India
The president insisted that the ruling did not weaken his trade agenda, declaring “nothing changes” and announcing a fresh 10 per cent global tariff under a different legal provision, according to a separate PTI news agency report.
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“Nothing changes. They'll (India) be paying tariffs, and we will not be paying tariffs. So deal with India is they pay tariffs. The India deal is on…all the deals are on, we're just going to do it in a different way”, Trump said.
The judgment reportedly left open a major unresolved issue: whether companies would be refunded the 175 billion dollars collected under the struck-down tariffs.
(With inputs from agencies)