The Supreme Court on Tuesday took an unusual move and agreed to quickly hear arguments related to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and whether the president has the power to impose them under federal law.
The justices will hear arguments beginning the first week of November, the court said in an order Tuesday. It’s a quick timeline for the justices after the Trump administration urged them to take the case when an appeals court last month said Trump acted unlawfully to impose tariffs on other countries.
The appeals court agreed with the U.S. Court of International Trade that Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency in order to implement his tariff plan was wrong.
The Constitution states that tariff power is assigned to Congress, and critics of the plan say Trump bypassed congressional approval.
Trump announced earlier this year, on what he called “Liberation Day,” that sweeping global tariffs would be placed on many trading partners around the world. Through an executive order, Trump placed a baseline 10% tariff on imports from almost every country, with additional tariff rates for specific countries.
Businesses and states challenged the tariffs in separate lawsuits and argued Trump wrongfully used emergency powers to tax goods, which hurt their businesses.
Trump’s tariffs have been left in place by the appeals court, even though lower courts deemed they were illegally applied. They will continue to remain in place as the Supreme Court goes through the expedited argument process.
It remains unknown whether the justices, which have a 6-3 conservative ideological majority, would allow Trump to proceed with his tariffs, but even if he were to lose at the high court, Trump could be looking for other avenues to press the tariff plan forward, NBC News reported.
Either way, the news comes as the court delivered the president several recent wins.
In an order Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts said the court would be temporarily keeping in place Trump’s decision to end $5 billion in foreign aid. On Monday, the court allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids to continue in California and allowed the president to proceed with removing the Federal Trade Commission leader from her post.