WASHINGTON (AP) — Majority Supreme Court The judges appeared skeptical Wednesday about President Donald Trump the ability to unilaterally impose far-reaching tariffsjeopardizing a cornerstone of his program in the biggest legal challenge of his presidency that tests boundaries.
Three conservative justices have raised questions about whether the emergency law gives Trump nearly unlimited power to set and change tariffs on imports, with a potential trillion-dollar impact on the global economy.
The court's three liberal justices also raised doubts, so at least two conservative votes could limit Trump's tariff power, although likely not end it.
The case is the first major element of Trump's agenda to come directly before the nation's highest court, which he helped shape by appointing three of the nine justices in his first term.
The conservative majority has so far been reluctant to limit his extreme executive flexibility through short-term orders on everything from firing the president to cutting funding.
That could change once a more detailed decision is made in the tariff case, although it will likely take weeks or months for it to come down.
The Constitution states that Congress has the power to levy tariffs. But first, the Trump administration argues that the emergency law allowing the president to regulate imports also includes tariffs.
But Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared concerned that too much power might be handed to the president over an issue that helped spark the American Revolution.
“Is the constitutional assignment to Congress of taxing powers, the power to reach into the pockets of the American people, just different?” he asked. “This should have been done at the local level, through our elected representatives.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts also raised questions about whether the emergency energy law allows tariffs on “any product, from any country, in any quantity and for any period of time,” as Roberts put it.
“The cause of action appears to be inappropriate,” he said.
Trump called the case one of the most important in the history of the country and said that the decision against it would be catastrophic for the economy.
The challengers argue that the 1977 Emergency Powers Act, which Trump used, doesn't even mention tariffs, and no president has previously used it to impose them. A number of small businesses say the uncertainty is pushing them to the brink of bankruptcy.
Case focused on two sets of tariffs. The first one appeared in February import from CanadaChina and Mexico after Trump declared a national emergency due to drug trafficking. The second involves massive “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries, which Trump announced in April.
