Supreme Court rules most of Trump’s tariffs are illegal
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast for Friday, February 20th, 2026. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Danielle Kurtzleben. I also cover the White House. And I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics. Today on the show, President Trump's signature economic policy, tariffs on imported goods. has been struck down by the Supreme Court. In a 6-3 ruling, the court said the president did not have the authority to impose tariffs unilaterally as he had long claimed. Danielle, let us start there. How had the president tried to impose tariffs?
Well, in the case that we're talking about here, we're talking about a law called IEPA. You're going to hear us say IEPA a million times today. IEPA stands for the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. It's an act from the 1970s that the Trump administration said allowed him to impose just sweeping tariffs on goods from all over the world.
What was the Supreme Court's ruling on Trump's tariffs?
The only thing was that he had to declare an emergency first. So those tariffs can only be used in case of emergency, he said. And so He imposed them to deal with what he said were two emergencies. One is a large trade deficit with many countries, and the other is fentanyl. So he said, look, the fentanyl trade and also our trade deficits so big, we're going to use these tariffs to try to cover those. Now, one important point here. That covers just the tariffs that are on particular countries. So if Trump said we are imposing tariffs on goods from China, Canada, Mexico, those are IEPA tariffs.
And we can just remind everyone that he had a big ceremony in the Rose Garden with giant poster boards with numbers on them. saying the tariffs that he was going to impose on dozens of countries. That was back in the spring. Yeah, April 2nd of last year. And it wasn't just dozens of countries. It was about 90 countries. Including an island inhabited by penguins. Absolutely. And so let's get to the Supreme Court. What does the decision say about why he can't do this?
How did President Trump attempt to impose tariffs?
Well, like you said, it's a 6-3 decision. And those six justices who said, nope, you can't do these tariffs, they were a little bit split on why he can't. But the basic idea is that Congress just didn't give him explicitly the The government had been arguing that there's language in IEPA that IEPA says the president can regulate and later that the law says importation so that together he gets to regulate importation. So they in the same sentence. They are, but they're separated by 16 words in between. But this was the government's rationale. And so they said, look, these tariffs aren't a tax. They're regulation. They're to regulate importation. Therefore, we can use them. And the Supreme Court said, no, no, no.
And in the varying opinions, different justices talked about different reasons why this doesn't work. But in one of the opinions, I believe, by the chief justice, it said, look, the SEC gets to regulate all sorts of stuff. That doesn't mean we allow the SEC to impose taxes. So regulate doesn't generally mean you get to tax people.
And I think that we should not overstate here how much of a blow this is to the president of the United States, because this is something that he campaigned on. This is something not just that his economic policy is built around, but also his foreign policy. This isn't just about trade. This is what he was using as leverage to get trade deals. This is what he said he used as leverage to get peace around the world. And as I said, it's something he talked about frequently in the campaign. Ashley, talk about the politics here.
Well, I mean, this is Trump's not just one of his favorite policies, one of his favorite words. Right. He talks about it all the time. And it's actually the part of the economy that voters hold him the most accountable for, which is really important here. When you hear voters talk about the economy, they still blame a lot on Biden and the pandemic. But when it comes to tariffs and some of these lingering high prices, this is the stuff that they blame specifically on Trump. So it's been a double edged sword, right?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:04–1:00
2
What was the Supreme Court's ruling on Trump's tariffs?
1:00–2:09
3
How did President Trump attempt to impose tariffs?
2:09–8:35
4
What does the Supreme Court decision reveal about presidential powers?
8:35–18:55
5
How did Trump react to the Supreme Court's decision?
18:55–22:55
6
What alternatives to tariffs is Trump considering?
22:55–23:10