The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case in November, and is making lightning faster on that typical standard.
Released on September 9, 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court granted an unusually quick hearing on whether President Donald Trump has the power to impose drastic tariffs under federal law.
The judiciary said Tuesday that it will hear the debate in November.
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Small businesses and states who challenged the tariffs in court also agreed to accelerated timetables. They say Trump illegally uses emergency situations to set import taxes on goods from almost every country in the world, driving businesses to bankruptcy.
The judge also agreed to hear another challenge to Trump’s tariffs brought about by Learning Resource, a family-owned toy company.
Two lower courts have found that while the 7-4 Court of Appeals has introduced them for now, most of the tariffs are imposed illegally.
Taxation has been part of the trade war that Trump has incited since returning to presidency in January, alienating trade partners, increasing volatility in financial markets and global economic uncertainty.
Trump makes tariffs an important foreign policy tool, using them to renegotiate trade transactions, extract concessions, and put political pressure on the country. Revenue from tariffs totaled $159 billion by late August, more than doubled its previous year’s same time.
The Trump administration asked the judiciary to step in quickly, claiming that the law gave him the power to regulate imports and that if the president was banned from using unilateral customs authorities, it would be on the brink of economic catastrophe.
The lawsuit comes before a courthouse that has been reluctant to check Trump’s extraordinary enforceability flexibility. One big question is whether the vast views of the presidential authorities will allow Trump tariffs without the express approval of Congress, and the US Constitution confers the power to collect tariffs.
The three justice of the conservative majority court was appointed by Trump in his first term.
Impact on trade negotiations
US Attorney General D. John Sawer argued that lower court decisions had already affected those trade negotiations. The Treasury Department may be hit by having to refund some of the import taxes it collects, Trump administration officials said. Sauer argued that the ruling on tariffs could even hamper the country’s ability to reduce the flow of fentanyl and efforts to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The administration has acquired four appellate court judges who discovered the International Emergency Economic Force Act of 1977, or the IEEPA. Over the past few decades, Congress has handed over customs authorities to the president, and Trump has made the most of his power.
The lawsuit includes two sets of import taxes. Both were justified by Trump’s declaration of a national emergency. The tariffs first announced in April and tariffs from February on imports from Canada, China and Mexico.
Foreign steel, aluminum, automobiles, or tariffs imposed during his first term held by former Democrat Joe Biden, does not include his taxation.
Trump can impose tariffs under other laws, but they have more restrictions on the speed and severity he can act.
