The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs on Friday, handing him a significant loss on an issue crucial to his economic agenda.
The 6-3 decision centers on tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law, including the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs he levied on nearly every other country.
It’s the first major piece of Trump’s broad agenda to come squarely before the nation’s highest court, which he helped shape with the appointments of three conservative jurists in his first term.
The majority found that the Constitution “very clearly” gives Congress the power to impose taxes, which include tariffs. “The Framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the Executive Branch,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.
Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.
“The tariffs at issue here may or may not be wise policy. But as a matter of text, history, and precedent, they are clearly lawful,” Kavanaugh wrote in the dissent.
Small businesses in Colorado scrambled last spring to adjust orders, reroute manufacturing and find cash to pay the higher fees on goods already ordered from countries like China that bore the highest reciprocal tariff rates. But contributing to the economic pain was the ups and downs of the tariffs, which were raised if a country raised their own, or Trump agreed to delay or lower them.
“I literally had planned in terms of the cost and cost to my customers, I had a Plan A, B, C, D, E and F by the time we decided OK, we’re just going to take a guess and go with it,” said Gail Ross, chief operating officer at outdoor clothing company Krimson Klover in Boulder. “We paid a lot more in tariffs than we’ve ever had to pay before.”
Krimson Klover also joined a group of small businesses nationwide called We Pay The Tariffs that have spoken against the high tariffs. On Thursday, they released a report showing that businesses paid $223 billion more in tariffs on U.S. imports from March to December. That included $1.1 billion from Colorado companies.
As the year’s trade continued, a series of lawsuits followed, including a case from a dozen largely Democratic-leaning states and others from small businesses selling everything from plumbing supplies to educational toys to women’s cycling apparel. Broomfield shoe company Crocs sued the Trump administration in December, seeking a $54 million refund on the tariffs it paid.
When reached Friday morning, Crocs spokesperson Melissa Layton said, “At this time we are still monitoring the court’s ruling very closely and are not currently commenting on the decision.”
Matt McAlvanah, with the We Pay the Tariffs coalition, said the group sent a letter Friday to Trump and Congress to refund the extra tariff payments.
“Our big next priority is refunds,” McAlvanah said in an email. “We have launched a national sign on letter led by the hundreds of businesses we already have on board calling for ‘Full, Fast and Automatic’ refunds.”
The tariffs decision doesn’t stop Trump from imposing duties under other laws. While those have more limitations on the speed and severity of Trump’s actions, top administration officials have said they expect to keep the tariff framework in place under other authorities.
The Supreme Court ruling comes despite a series of short-term wins on the court’s emergency docket that have allowed Trump to push ahead with extraordinary flexes of executive power on issues ranging from high-profile firings to major federal funding cuts.
The Republican president has been vocal about the case, calling it one of the most important in U.S. history and saying a ruling against him would be an economic body blow to the country. But legal opposition crossed the political spectrum, including libertarian and pro-business groups that are typically aligned with the GOP. Polling has found tariffs aren’t broadly popular with the public, amid wider voter concern about affordability.
The Constitution gives Congress the power to levy tariffs. But the Trump administration argued that a 1977 law allowing the president to regulate importation during emergencies also allows him to set tariffs. Other presidents have used the law dozens of times, often to impose sanctions, but Trump was the first president to invoke it for import taxes.
Trump set what he called “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries in April 2025 to address trade deficits that he declared a national emergency. Those came after he imposed duties on Canada, China and Mexico, ostensibly to address a drug trafficking emergency.
The challengers argued the emergency powers law doesn’t even mention tariffs and Trump’s use of it fails several legal tests, including one that doomed then-President Joe Biden’s $500 billion student loan forgiveness program.
The economic impact of Trump’s tariffs has been estimated at some $3 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Treasury has collected more than $133 billion from the import taxes the president has imposed under the emergency powers law, federal data from December shows. Many companies, including the big-box warehouse chain Costco, have already lined up in court to demand refunds.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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