Trump Says He May Attend Supreme Court Tariff Hearing
Former President Calls Upcoming Case One of the Most Important Ever
Key Takeaways:
- President Donald Trump said he may attend Supreme Court arguments Nov. 5 on whether his sweeping tariffs on global imports were legally authorized.
- The case stems from lower court rulings that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not grant presidents authority to impose tariffs, which Trump disputes.
- A Supreme Court decision upholding those rulings could cut U.S. tariff rates roughly in half and trigger refunds worth tens of billions of dollars, analysts said.
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President Donald Trump said he might go to the Supreme Court to personally watch oral arguments on whether the bulk of his tariffs pass legal muster, in what would be a highly unusual spectacle.
“I think I’m going to go to the Supreme Court to watch it,” Trump told reporters Oct. 15 in the Oval Office. “I’ve not done that, and I had some pretty big cases. I think it’s one of the most important cases ever brought, because we will be defenseless against the world.”
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Nov. 5 over whether import taxes affecting trillions of dollars in international commerce imposed by Trump are legal. The president has said the tariffs are authorized under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law that gives the president a panoply of tools to address national security, foreign policy and economic emergencies.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled 7-4 that the law doesn’t authorize such a sweeping array of tariffs.
“The statute bestows significant authority on the president to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax,” the appeals court said. The ruling upheld a decision from the Court of International Trade.
If the Supreme Court upheld the lower court rulings, it could reduce the average U.S. effective tariff rate of 16.3% by at least half and could force the U.S. to refund tens of billions of dollars, according to Bloomberg Economics analyst Chris Kennedy. It could also upend the preliminary trade deals Trump has struck with some countries.
(Bloomberg Television via YouTube)
While presidents have previously visited the high court for events including the investitures of justices, visiting during oral arguments is rare.
Trump had previously said he planned to go to the Supreme Court as justices were weighing the question of whether he enjoyed presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for his role seeking to overturn the 2020 election. He ultimately opted instead to hold a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The justices in 2024 held that Trump was entitled to presumptive immunity for official acts.
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