President Donald Trump says the country would be on “the brink of economic catastrophe” without the import taxes he’s imposed on U.S. rivals and allies alike.
President Donald Trump is seeking a swift and definitive decision on tariffs from the Supreme Court that he helped shape, saying the country would be on “the brink of economic catastrophe” without the import taxes he has imposed on U.S. rivals and allies alike.
The administration used near-apocalyptic terms that are highly unusual in Supreme Court filings as it asked the justices late Wednesday to intervene and reverse an appeals court ruling that found most of Trump’s tariffs are an illegal use of an emergency powers law. The tariffs remain in place, for now.
The case comes to a court that has so far been reluctant to check Trump’s extraordinary flex of executive power. One big question is whether the justice’s own expansive view of presidential authority allows for Trump’s tariffs without the explicit approval of Congress, which the Constitution endows with the power over tariffs. Three of the justices on conservative-majority court were nominated by Trump in his first term.
The tariffs and their erratic rollout have shaken global markets, alienated U.S. trading partners and allies, and raised fears of higher prices and slower economic growth.
But the Republican president has also used the trade penalties to pressure the European Union, Japan and others into accepting new deals. Revenue from tariffs totaled $159 billion by late August, more than double what it was at the same point a year earlier.
Raising the stakes even higher, Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the Supreme Court to decide in a week’s time whether to hear the case and hold arguments the first week of November. That is far faster than the pace of the typical Supreme Court case.
“The President and his Cabinet officials have determined that the tariffs are promoting peace and unprecedented economic prosperity, and that the denial of tariff authority would expose our nation to trade retaliation without effective defenses and thrust America back to the brink of economic catastrophe,” Sauer wrote.
