On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Trump's sweeping tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were not authorized by that law, holding that the president cannot use emergency powers to impose import duties without Congressional approval; the Court wrote that “IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.” Chief Justice Roberts wrote that “IEEPA contains no reference to tariffs or duties” and that “no President has read IEEPA to confer such power” until now.
Rather than respect the ruling, Trump launched an extraordinary attack on the judiciary. He said he was “absolutely ashamed” of the justices who ruled against him. He singled out Gorsuch and Barrett — two of the three justices he personally appointed to the court — calling their votes “an embarrassment to their families” and calling them “fools and lap dogs for the RINOs and the radical left Democrats” who were “very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution.” He praised only the three dissenters: Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh.
Within hours of the ruling, Trump announced he would sign a new executive order imposing a 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, saying, “Other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected.” Treasury Secretary Bessent claimed the alternative authorities would result in “virtually unchanged tariff revenue.”
The next day, February 21, Trump raised the tariff from 10% to 15% — the maximum allowed under Section 122 — applying to $1.2 trillion worth of annual imports. Legal experts immediately noted that Section 122 was designed for balance-of-payments crises, not trade deficits, and that Trump's justification likely doesn't meet the statutory requirements. Fortune reported that trade experts called the use of Section 122 “also illegal” because the balance-of-payments deficit Trump cited doesn't actually exist. Section 122 also requires Congressional approval to continue beyond 150 days.
This represents a constitutional crisis in slow motion. A president attacking Supreme Court justices as disloyal for upholding the Constitution, then immediately acting to circumvent their ruling — and escalating the circumvention within 24 hours — is an assault on the separation of powers and the rule of law. The tariffs struck down had already collected over $160 billion and were projected to raise $1.4 trillion through 2035 — all without Congressional authorization.
Correction (October 2, 2026): this entry said the Court ruled the tariffs unconstitutional and that Trump defied the ruling. The Court held that the emergency-powers statute does not authorize tariffs, and Trump imposed new tariffs under a different law, a workaround rather than defiance of the judgment. The title and key facts were corrected.