Supreme Court set to issue rulings, with Trump tariffs case still pending

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue one or more rulings on Wednesday in cases already argued before the justices as major legal disputes remain pending including litigation testing the legality of President Donald Trump's global tariffs.

AI Brief

The Supreme Court is preparing rulings that could determine whether Trump exceeded his authority by imposing broad emergency-based tariffs.
Justices from both ideological wings have questioned the legality of using the IEEPA to levy tariffs on nearly all trading partners.
The outcome carries major economic implications, with businesses and states challenging the tariffs and global markets awaiting clarity.

The court is set to release rulings at about 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT). The court does not announce ahead of time which rulings it intends to issue. The court issued one ruling last Friday but did not act in the tariffs case, which was argued on November 5.

The challenge to Trump's tariffs marks a major test of presidential powers as well as of the court's willingness to check some of the Republican president's far-reaching assertions of authority since he returned to office in January 2025. The outcome will impact the global economy.

During arguments in the case, conservative and liberal justices appeared to cast doubt on the legality of the tariffs, which Trump imposed by invoking a 1977 law meant for use during national emergencies. Trump's administration is appealing rulings by lower courts that he overstepped his authority.

Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose so-called "reciprocal" tariffs on goods imported from individual countries - nearly every foreign trading partner - to address what he called a national emergency related to U.S. trade deficits. He invoked the same law to impose tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, citing the trafficking of the often-abused painkiller fentanyl and illicit drugs into the United States as a national emergency.

The challenges to the tariffs in the cases before the Supreme Court were brought by businesses affected by the tariffs and 12 U.S. states, most of them Democratic-governed.

Other cases awaiting rulings include disputes concerning voting rights, religious rights, Trump's firing of a Federal Trade Commission member, LGBT "conversion therapy" and campaign finance limits, among others.