US Supreme Court does not issue ruling in Trump tariffs case

[WASHINGTON] The US Supreme Court will not issue a ruling on Friday (Jan 9) 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 Nov 5, conservative and liberal justices appeared to cast doubt on the legality of the tariffs, 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.

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

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. 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 US as a national emergency.

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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. REUTERS