Justice Thomas Sounds Off ON SCOTUS Tariff Ruling
Justice Thomas cooks the majority with his dissent in today's tariff decision
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 20, 2026
"Congress authorized the President to 'regulate… importation.' Throughout American history, the authority to 'regulate importation' has been understood to include the authority to impose duties on… pic.twitter.com/QB5Cw7AZKa
🚨 JUST IN: Legal expert Jonathan Turley confirms Trump has a MASSIVE TOOLBOX of additional tariff options, the 6-3 SCOTUS ruling is NOT the end of the road
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) February 20, 2026
"The admin has other tools…it can impose tariffs under other statutes."
MAKE IT HAPPEN!pic.twitter.com/WwjQD62kO3
Justice Brett Kavanaugh raised in a fiery dissent what he said would be “serious practical consequences” of the high court’s decision in terms of refunding illegitimately imposed tariffs. The majority did not address refunds, an issue now likely to be raised in lower courts.
Lawyers for the Trump administration have argued in lower courts that the IEEPA allows a president to act in response to “unusual and extraordinary threats” and in cases where a national emergency has been declared.
Trump says that deep and “sustained” trade deficits are a national emergency that is bad enough to let him use his emergency powers.
“The United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others,” Kavanaugh wrote. “As was acknowledged at oral argument, the refund process is likely to be a ‘mess.’”
Plaintiffs said that no president has ever used the law to impose tariffs in the 50 years since it was passed. They also said that the trade deficit Trump talked about has been going on for almost 50 years, which they said goes against his claim that there is an “unusual and extraordinary” trade emergency.
They said that letting Trump use IEEPA to keep his universal tariffs would give the executive branch a lot more power at the expense of the other branches of government.
Court of International Trade agreed to stop Trump’s tariffs from going into effect.
The DOJ asked the Supreme Court to keep the tariffs in place, saying that not giving Trump the power to set tariffs under IEEPA “would leave our country open to trade retaliation without effective defenses.”
They said that as commander-in-chief, Trump does not have “unbounded authority” to impose tariffs under the emergency law.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit also rejected the administration’s use of IEEPA.
