Tariffs. US Government Asks Supreme Court for Quick Decision

The United States government has asked the Supreme Court for a swift ruling on its tariff increases on imports after losing a court appeal.

In a petition filed Wednesday night, the executive branch asked the justices to confirm that the U.S. president has the legal power to, invoking a national emergency, impose import surcharges, which, in this case, were imposed on almost every country in the world.

On Friday, a federal appeals court ruled most of the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump unlawful under an emergency powers law .

Shortly after the decision was announced, Trump stated on the social network Truth Social that he was counting on the "Supreme Court's help" to keep the surcharges in place and emphasized that they would remain in place temporarily.

According to the court ruling, "the law grants the President broad powers to take a variety of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly includes the power to impose customs duties and other taxes."

The federal appeals court largely upheld a May ruling by a New York federal trade court, which the government appealed.

However, the court rejected part of the appealed decision, which annulled the tariffs immediately, giving the government time to file an appeal with the Supreme Court.

The execution of the decision was suspended until October 14 and customs duties remain in force until that date.

Thanks to judicial appointments made during Trump's first term (2017-2021), the Supreme Court currently has a conservative majority.

US tariffs now average 20.1 percent, according to calculations by the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund.

This level is the highest since the early 1910s.

The average tariff was just 2.4% when Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025.

The Constitution grants Congress the power to impose taxes, including tariffs, and no president has ever invoked a national emergency—the foreign trade deficit the United States has maintained for nearly five decades—to regulate trade with other countries.

The legal challenge does not cover Trump's tariffs on foreign steel, aluminum and autos, imposed after Commerce Department investigations concluded they were national security threats.

It also doesn't include the tariffs Trump imposed on China during his first term — and which former President Joe Biden maintained — after a government investigation concluded that the Chinese used unfair practices to give their own tech companies an advantage over Western rivals.