Supreme Court Blocks Trump's Tariffs, Elites Cheer

On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that struck down the bulk of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs, ruling that using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose broad, across-the-board duties exceeded presidential authority. The move was a stinging rebuke from the bench and marks one of the most consequential limits on executive power in recent memory.

 Chief Justice John Roberts

 

’s majority held that IEEPA does not grant the president the power to impose tariffs as a general tool of trade policy, a legal distinction that conservatives and populists alike will find frustrating given the stakes. Three conservative justices — Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — dissented, arguing the ruling simply checked the wrong statutory box and did not foreclose other lawful options.

Let’s be clear: the decision does not wipe out every trade measure in place today. Sector-specific levies such as the steel and aluminum tariffs remain intact, and the White House immediately telegraphed alternative paths — including a proposed 10 percent global tariff under other trade statutes — to keep pressure on unfair trading partners. Those practical realities matter to every factory floor and supply-chain manager still trying to rebuild American industry.

Patriots should not lose sight of why these policies were popular: tariffs pushed back against decades of deindustrialization and the flood of cheap Chinese goods that gutted Main Street. As Carl Higbie bluntly put it on his program, tariffs “saved us from cheap Chinese crap,” and millions of American workers and small businesses felt that protection in their paychecks and factory shifts. That kind of common-sense economic patriotism ought to be celebrated, not surgically neutered by legal semantics.

Make no mistake, the decision hands a victory to the coastal elites and multinational lobbyists who prefer borderless markets over American sovereignty. Economists warned the tariffs could raise costs in the short term for consumers, but the larger picture is about restoring production, supply-chain resilience, and the dignity of work — goals the spectacle of cheap imports and offshoring have long sacrificed.

Now is the time for conservatives in Congress to stop wringing their hands and start legislating with backbone: either pass clear statutory authority that empowers the president to defend American industry or reform trade law so future administrations can act without judicial whiplash. If the Court wants to play referee, then lawmakers must give the players a clear rulebook — otherwise we’ll keep watching our manufacturing base evaporate while judges and bureaucrats reshuffle the deck.