Hailey Whitlock, Staff Writer

On Nov. 5 2025, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding the legality of President Trump’s tariffs. The tariffs that were instituted in April have had profound impacts in the business world, including increased prices for consumers for imported goods, higher costs for businesses who partner with companies outside the U.S. to outsource parts, and high premiums raised for the U.S. government. When the tariffs initially came out, they caused quite a stir, placing “reciprocal taxes” on over 100 countries. 

However, for the first time in President Trump’s second administration, the Supreme Court is outwardly challenging his power by reviewing if these tariffs are legal. The legality (or lack thereof) of these tariffs goes back to an act from 1977 called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. This act allows the president to regulate international commerce during an emergency. It was under this act that the tariffs were initially put in place; the debate centers around if the tariffs stretch the power of this act too far. 

The issue is that the power of taxation lies firmly with Congress. Many feel that President Trump has used this act to subvert going through Congress to pass what is essentially an act of taxation. Per the New York Times, Dr. John Sauer, the U.S. Solicitor General, claimed that the president’s actions were merely in regard to regulating foreign commerce, not infringing on Congress’ right to tax. He stated that the revenue raised from the tariffs was simply “incidental.” As stated by the New York Times, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, “You want to say tariffs are not taxes, but that’s exactly what they are. They are generating money from American citizens.” 

As reported by Fox News, Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel for the Liberty Justice Center and counsel for plaintiffs in one of the consolidated cases, made the following statement: “It’s not about this president. It’s about all presidents and the power they have under the Constitution, and the powers that they don’t have under the Constitution, and whether Congress can delegate those powers- and, if it does, how broad can those powers be? Everybody should be concerned about that. Because even if you like what the president is doing now, you might not like what a future president does with the same power.” 
If the Supreme Court did confirm the lower courts’ decision that the tariffs were beyond the scope of the act and therefore unconstitutional, the aftermath would be difficult as the government would be forced to navigate the complex process of repaying the funds collected. With respect to the complexity of this repayment process, the lower courts have agreed to pause their rulings in an effort to avoid the difficulties of figuring out these refunds until the Supreme Court issues the final opinion. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told the Hill, “You’ll have all these importers and importing interests who are going to want that money back. And, so, we’ll have to figure out, probably within the court, what kind of a schedule might look like and what are the rights of these parties and what rights the government has to that money.”