Overview
- Small businesses and a coalition of states filed briefs asking the Court to leave in place decisions that struck down most of President Trump’s IEEPA-based tariffs.
- The filings call the measures the largest peacetime tax increase and argue IEEPA does not grant tariff or taxing authority, invoking the major-questions and nondelegation doctrines.
- Trump’s orders created 'trafficking' tariffs on goods from Canada, China, and Mexico and separate 'reciprocal' tariffs of 10%–50% on products from nearly all countries.
- Lower courts, including the Federal Circuit in a 7–4 decision, held that imposing tariffs of such sweeping scope requires clear congressional authorization absent from IEEPA.
- The Solicitor General defends the orders as a lawful way to 'regulate importation,' while challengers cite concrete harm, including a $100 million cost projection this year for two education-product companies.