US Supreme Court Rules Against Trump's Reciprocal Tariffs

12:00 PM EST, 02/20/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The US Supreme Court on Friday invalidated President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Trump invoked the IEEPA to impose sweeping levies last year in a bid to reduce the country's trade deficit and boost American manufacturing.

The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, struck down Trump's tariffs, according to media reports. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.

"We hold that IEEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court's majority opinion.

"When Congress grants the power to impose tariffs, it does so clearly and with careful constraints," Roberts said. "It did neither here."

The ruling did not address potential refunds of tariffs already collected, media reports showed.

The decision, largely expected, is a blow to Trump's tariff policy, Wedbush Securities said.

"We would expect the Trump Administration to now head down the Section 232/301 path, but this will take a much longer road to get tariffs eventually enacted on the (semiconductors) front etc.," Wedbush analysts including Dan Ives wrote.

"With (about) $133.5 billion in tariff revenue up for grabs if the US tariff ruling leads to refunds for organizations, according to the Wharton School of Business, we believe this would act as a net positive for tech with financial relief for many companies while creating greater supply chain visibility especially coming from the Asia supply chain," Ives said. "This will be a very noisy situation but for the tech pace and AI trade, its a net positive out of the gates in our view."

Government data on Thursday showed the US trade deficit widened to a five-month high in December as imports increased and exports fell. In 2025, the US goods and services trade deficit ticked 0.2% lower as export growth outpaced imports.

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