The Supreme Court granted an unusually quick hearing on President Trump's sweeping tariffs on Tuesday, putting a policy at the center of his economic agenda squarely before the nation's highest court, the AP reports. The justices will hear the case in November, a lightning-fast timetable by the Supreme Court's typical standards, and rule at some point after that. The tariffs will stay in place in the meantime. The court agreed to take up an appeal from the Trump administration after lower courts found most of his tariffs illegal.
The small businesses and states that challenged them also agreed to the accelerated timetable. They say Trump's import taxes on goods from almost every country in the world have nearly driven their businesses to bankruptcy. "Congress, not the President alone, has the power to impose tariffs," attorney Jeffrey Schwab with the Liberty Justice Center said. Two lower courts have agreed that Trump didn't have the power to impose all the tariffs under an emergency powers law, though a divided appeals court left them in place.
The Trump administration asked the justices to intervene quickly, arguing the law gives him the power to regulate imports and striking down the tariffs would put the country on "the brink of economic catastrophe." Solicitor General D. John Sauer has argued that the lower court rulings are already affecting trade negotiations. If the tariffs are struck down, the US Treasury might take a hit by having to refund some of the import taxes it's collected, Trump administration officials have said. A ruling against them could even threaten the nation's ability to reduce the flow of fentanyl and efforts to end Russia's war against Ukraine, Sauer argued.
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