The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the Trump administration’s request to hear its appeal of lower court rulings that many of President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs are illegal.
The Supreme Court also agreed with the administration’s request to consider the appeal on a faster-than-normal timeline.
The court, in an order, said it would hear oral arguments in the first week of November. It allotted one hour for that session.
The court consolidated two separate cases in which plaintiffs – seven small businesses and a dozen states — have successfully challenged the legality of the tariffs at issue.
The Trump administration, in asking for the expedited appeal in one of the cases, has warned that the Treasury Department could be forced to refund between $750 billion and $1 trillion in collected tariffs if the Supreme Court waited until next June to issue a decision that agreed with lower court judges that the duties are illegal.
At stake in the Supreme Court appeal are “reciprocal tariffs” that Trump announced on April 2.
Those range from a baseline of 10% on imports for many countries to as high as 50% on imports from Brazil and India.
Also at risk are 25% tariffs on some imports from Canada, China and Mexico. Trump has said that those duties are to hold those nations accountable for tolerating the flow of the deadly drug fentanyl into the United States.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a 7-4 ruling on Aug. 29 said that Trump had usurped the authority of Congress to impose tariffs when he slapped steep duties on imports from many countries earlier this year.
A security guard walks down the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., July 19, 2024.
Kevin Mohatt | Reuters
Trump had invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in imposing those tariffs.
The appeals court, in upholding a ruling by the Court of International Trade, said that a president’s authority to regulate imports during a national emergency does not authorize the imposition of worldwide tariffs with no expiration date, as Trump has done.
The appeals court ruling in the case known as V.O.S. Selections v. Trump came three months to the day after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., in a separate case, known as Learning Resources v. Trump, also had ruled that the tariffs the president imposed related to fentanyl and to the International Emergency Powers Act are illegal.
The Trump tariffs challenged in the cases have remained in effect since the rulings. They remain in effect as the Supreme Court considers the administration’s appeal.
The court’s decision to expedite the appeal suggests the justices will issue a final decision quickly. But it is not clear how quickly that decision could come.
“We are confident that the Supreme Court, like the CIT and the Federal Circuit, will recognize that the President does not have unilateral tariff power under IEEPA,” said Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel and director of litigation at the Liberty Justice Center, which represented a group of five small businesses who were plaintiffs in V.O.S. v. Trump.
“Congress, not the President alone, has the constitutional power to impose tariffs,” Schwab said.
The Tax Foundation has estimated that nearly 70% of all goods imported into the U.S. are affected by tariffs imposed by Trump.
If the Supreme Court agrees that the tariffs being challenged in the two cases are illegal, only about 16% of U.S. imports would be affected by other tariffs implemented by the president, the foundation has estimated.
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