Democrats ask Supreme Court to curb presidential tariff power

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) – Democrats want the U.S. Supreme Court to do what they haven't been able to in Congress: Take away President Donald Trump's tariff authority. 

Since retaking the White House in January, Trump has used a 1977 law that doesn't mention tariffs to reorder global trade. Trump has imposed import duties on every major U.S. trading partner, citing authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.

A group of small businesses, two Illinois toymakers and a group of Democrat-led states have challenged Trump's authority under the law. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case with oral arguments set for Nov. 5.

Trump said the case is so essential to the country's economy that he might attend personally.

Some 207 members of Congress, almost all Democrats, told the Supreme Court in a friend-of-the-court brief that the president overstepped his authority.

"When the President wishes to impose tariffs, he must comply with the existing, lawful delegations of tariff power that Congress has enacted or, if he finds those authorities insufficient, ask Congress for new authority," the group wrote. "Here, however, the President has usurped Congress's constitutional authority by impermissibly using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act."

The Democrats said Congress never delegated such power to the president.

"IEEPA contains none of the hallmarks of legislation delegating tariff power to the executive, such as limitations tied to specific products or countries, caps on the amount of tariff increases, procedural safeguards, public input, collaboration with Congress, or time limitations," they wrote in the brief. "In the five decades since IEEPA's enactment, no President from either party, until now, has ever invoked IEEPA to impose tariffs."

The challengers argue that Congress, not the president, retains the power to tax. Trump says he has the authority and that his deals worldwide benefit all Americans.

In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a previous lower court ruling, but said Trump's tariffs could remain in place while the administration appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the 7-4 decision, the majority of the Federal Circuit said that tariff authority rests with Congress. It used that same language: "We discern no clear congressional authorization by IEEPA for tariffs of the magnitude of the Reciprocal Tariffs and Trafficking Tariffs. Reading the phrase 'regulate ... importation' to include imposing these tariffs is 'a wafer-thin reed on which to rest such sweeping power.'"

The Supreme Court agreed to consider the tariff challenge on an expedited schedule. A victory for Trump would cement the federal government's newest revenue source – the highest import duties in nearly a century – at least for now.

Trump has said a loss could be catastrophic for the U.S. economy.

According to an analysis of federal data from the Penn Wharton Budget Model, the president's new tariffs raised $80.3 billion in revenue between January 2025 and July 2025 before accounting for income and payroll tax offsets.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that Trump's tariffs could generate $4 trillion in revenue over the next decade, but they would raise consumer prices and reduce the buying power of U.S. families.

Trump has said he wants to use tariffs to restore manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past, shift the tax burden away from U.S. families, and pay down the national debt.

A tariff is a tax on imported goods that the importer pays, not the producer. The importer pays the cost of the duties directly to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a federal agency.