The court says no: the Supreme Court’s rebuke of Trump’s tariff gambit

ON FEB 20, 2026, the US Supreme Court delivered one of the most consequential rulings of the Trump era, and perhaps one of the most significant check on executive power in a generation.

In a 6-3 decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court struck down the sweeping tariffs US President Donald Trump imposed on imports from nearly every country in the world, holding that the 1977 law he used to justify them granted no such authority. The ruling was blunt, the majority’s logic airtight, and the political fallout immediate and volcanic.

To understand the stakes, one must first understand the president’s claim. Relying on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) – a 1977 statute designed to regulate commerce in response to foreign emergencies – Trump imposed “reciprocal” tariffs including duties as high as 145 per cent on Chinese goods and a baseline 10 per cent on nearly all other trading partners.