On Friday, the Supreme Court struck down most of the tariffs the Trump administration had imposed over the past year. The question before the court was not whether the tariffs themselves were illegal, but whether the mechanism by which they were enacted was legal. By a 6-3 vote, the Justices determined that the implementation of tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) went beyond the authority granted. The IEEPA allows a president to act in times of genuine national emergencies rather than to take broad trade policy actions. For example, it was enacted during the post-9/11 war on global terrorism and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
