Supreme Court rules that Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs are illegal | CNN Politics (www.cnn.com)
from IronpigsWizard@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 15:11
https://lemmy.world/post/43374951

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump violated federal law when he unilaterally imposed sweeping tariffs across the globe, a striking loss for the White House on an issue that has been central to the president’s foreign policy and economic agenda.

#world

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Eldritch@piefed.world on 20 Feb 15:14 next collapse

Too little too late supreme court. There’s no one left to enforce the decision.

northendtrooper@lemmy.ca on 20 Feb 15:51 next collapse

This was planned. Blitzkrieg policies are working as intended.

merc@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 21:04 collapse

It’s not really a matter of timing. If this ruling had come out a year ago, it’s not like there were enforcers ready to go. As soon as Trump took over he made sure that nothing in the executive branch was going to stand in his way. And his toadies in the legislative branch have been rolling over for him since the inauguration.

Eldritch@piefed.world on 20 Feb 21:27 collapse

Certainly. But the DOJ and every other agency has been completely hollowed of anyone that could have even tried.

Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca on 20 Feb 15:15 next collapse

So they are going to pay it back right?……….Right?

Quilotoa@lemmy.ca on 20 Feb 15:21 next collapse

The cheque is in the mail.

can_you_change_your_username@fedia.io on 20 Feb 15:30 next collapse

There are already lawsuits filed for refunds of tariff payments. Of course the money will go to the companies that made the payments. All of us who actually paid them by paying more for basically every consumer good are out of luck.

supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz on 20 Feb 15:35 next collapse

Yeah, it is kind of like seeing you car that was stolen on the news being returned to the person who resold it from the person who stole your car.

Triumph@fedia.io on 20 Feb 15:36 next collapse

Wealth transfer from labor to the ownership class.

henfredemars@infosec.pub on 20 Feb 16:53 next collapse

Sounds like the system is working as intended.

Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 22:16 collapse

Yup. This is exactly what these tariffs did.

This was the highest tax increase on the American people in decades. And MAGA idiots cheered the entire time they lost money. Fuck all of them.

Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca on 20 Feb 15:40 next collapse

And people are delusional if they think these prices will go back down.

venusaur@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 16:01 next collapse

It’s always a win win for the wealthy

natecox@programming.dev on 20 Feb 16:02 next collapse

Really excited for the Transparent Wealth Transfer Act of 2026.

credo@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 16:16 next collapse

Hah! It gets better than that.

We are going to have to pay again in taxes to make up for the new shortfall.

ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net on 20 Feb 16:54 next collapse

Companies that made the payments already sold their rights to this refunds to investment funds for cents on the dollar. Now the funds will make shitload of money. And guess who invested in all of it? Yes, people connected to Trump!

wired.com/…/cantor-fitzgerald-trump-tariff-refund…

They straight out robbed everyone.

gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 17:17 next collapse

Lmfao of course they had something like this set up

ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net on 20 Feb 17:43 collapse

I posted this link before. Sometimes I feel like not everyone here is reading my comments.

gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 17:47 collapse

I must have missed it - I try to take breaks from doomscrolling occasionally 😛

CannonFodder@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 19:56 next collapse

This explains the sc decision. The billionaires bribed them to make bank with these refund investments.

AA5B@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 22:09 collapse

Anyone else would avoid a conflict of interest. They just looke to monetize it

merc@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 18:09 collapse

It this were a proper, well regulated capitalist marketplace with actual competition, the company that sold you the widget might offer you a rebate on your next order so that they could keep your business. But, when your only real option is Amazon, they know you’re not going anywhere, so they’ll keep the tariff repayment and just wait for your next order.

slevinkelevra@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 15:31 next collapse

Yeah of course, now the big importing companies get billions of dollars… oh you meant to the consumer, tough luck.

shittydwarf@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 15:44 next collapse

A trump never pays his debts

3jane@piefed.ca on 20 Feb 18:25 next collapse

There’s always the chance Costco gives its customers something. They have records of everything purchased by members. Every other company, I wouldn’t hold my breath. These tariffs have cost companies a lot in paperwork as well.

Maybe commercial clients who have bought something really substantial will get something refunded.

That’s all if Trump’s government complies, which he’s previously said it wouldn’t. He’ll make another excuse or appeal it until he’s gone, making it someone else’s problem.

Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 22:15 next collapse

Pay who back? All the citizens this administration fleeced?

If corporations are paid back they aren’t going to give refunds to all of their costumers they directly forwarded these costs to.

We all got fucked. Trump fucked us, as well as his own supporters.

sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 20 Feb 22:23 collapse

So…

… yeah…

According to the Fed, as of early-mid Jan 2026, you’re looking at $287 billion dollars of total Trump tariff revenue.

richmondfed.org/…/how_much_revenue_raised_by_tari…

Also, over the last year, into this one, the Treasury has been massively expanding its General Account, which is functionally the checking account of the Federal Government.

Its around $900 billion right now.

Normally its more like several hundred billion, 200 b, 300 b.

Why is it so large right now?

Well, because the Treasury (Bessent) has decided to just massively shift as much of the Gov’s debt refinancing as possible, over to… short term debt issuance, like, 1 Year T bills and even shorter duration notes.

Like uh, just a few days ago, the Gov issued (refinanced) around $212 billion of debt.

So yeah, we had a one day debt rollover that… rivals the entire size of the Treasury General Account basically pre-covid.

Every 5 days (business week), the US Gov is refinancing roughly $600 billion of debt.

… what I am trying to say is that even if the treasury were to somehow pay back around $300 billion of illegal tariff revenue…

Well, that would take a while.

Because the Treasury doesn’t have the margin to do that.

… It could very well be the case that Fed would have to print money, to buy the T Bills, so the money in the TGA… could repay the … tariffs.

That latest $212 billion rollover ?

The Fed had to print, poof into existence, $8 billion of it. And thats without the Fed Gov trying to add another $300 billion into… some… kind of… payment plan?

I don’t know man, I’m an econometrician by training, but… to my knowledge nothing comparable to this has ever happened before.

This is not looking so good.

kingofras@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 15:37 next collapse

Fuck off Supreme Court. I have it on good authority that The President is immune to any legal action for any presidential acts.

LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 20 Feb 16:12 collapse

He’s immune to punishment for them. If anyone charges a tariff to a company/person buying a foreign product that wasn’t imposed by congress though, they can still be held liable.

And Trump filling out pardons for everyone to ignore the supreme Court I doubt can be considered an official act, not sure what that would fall under. Government overthrow again, lol

brucethemoose@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 15:41 next collapse

Whoa.

Well, I bet my pants that Justice Clarence Thomas is a dissenting opinion. Does it say in the article?

brucethemoose@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 15:42 next collapse

Yep.

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 20 Feb 15:47 next collapse

There’s only one way to find out: ask people what’s in the article.

Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch joined with Roberts and the three liberal justices in the majority. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.

brucethemoose@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 15:49 next collapse

I just wanted to guess before I read it.

Eldritch@piefed.world on 20 Feb 15:57 collapse

Can something so certain legitimately be called a guess anymore?

TheMadCodger@piefed.social on 20 Feb 16:10 collapse

“Supreme Court justices should be [terrible thing, deadly, obviously bad outcome for them]”

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.

thesohoriots@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 17:10 collapse

Like, who knows, in a motor coach kissing a concrete pillar on the way back from Martha’s Vineyard when OnStar goes out during a Cloudflare outage?

orclev@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 16:16 next collapse

It’s always the ones you most suspect. You could probably be closely aligned with the constitution without knowing a single thing about the law by just always taking the opposite position from whatever Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh take.

grue@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 16:26 next collapse

I can’t remember what it was about, but I think Kavanaugh was actually on the correct side of a non-unanimous ruling maybe once.

Literally zero times for the other two, of course.

ameancow@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 16:40 collapse

A few of them made an effort to keep up appearances during early rulings, but then they realized that democracy was falling so they went whole-hog with empowering fascism, and now we’re approaching what looks like a brutal mid-term sweep so the judges are backing off again from overt capitulation… we sure wouldn’t want the new house and senate to introduce bills to reform Supreme Court, right?

FaceDeer@fedia.io on 20 Feb 16:49 collapse

I must admit I've been surprised by how independent of Trump Amy Coney Barrett has wound up being. She's ruled against him a few times now.

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 20 Feb 17:43 collapse

When she looks relatively sane and moderate it just demonstrates how crazy and extreme the fascists in charge are.

FaceDeer@fedia.io on 20 Feb 17:44 collapse

Oh, certainly. I would never say she was a good pick for the Supreme Court. She's a monster who has turned on her creator, as so many of them ultimately do.

BillyClark@piefed.social on 20 Feb 16:23 collapse

I still think Barrett, a person who had almost no courtroom experience before being appointed, was a shitty appointment. But she’s turned out slightly less shitty than I anticipated.

thesohoriots@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 17:12 collapse

Recusing herself that one time was a low bar to clear, but she managed to huff and puff her way over.

zikzak025@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 15:48 collapse

Thomas, Alito, and Kavanagh were the dissenters.

Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 15:43 next collapse

I mean, as much of a fucking mess this is going to cause, and as much as they should have said this a year ago, this is still very good news as far as I am concerned. Bare minimum, all the tarriffs currently in place by Trump are canceled going forward and it’s going to be a while before anything analogous can be put back into place.

Weydemeyer@lemmy.ml on 20 Feb 15:51 next collapse

It’s a good thing first and foremost because tariffs have been Trump’s #1 tool to bully other nations into bending to his will.

NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip on 20 Feb 16:26 next collapse

Incorrect.

Only a subset of tariffs were ruled illegal. Mostly because of the method they were declared with.

Others are, as of now, perfectly legal and will remain in place. And expect many of these to just be declared in a different manner to maintain them.

takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 20 Feb 17:41 collapse

Any idea which specific tariffs supposed to go away and which will stay?

aramis87@fedia.io on 20 Feb 16:32 next collapse

It's not all the tariffs, just the ones he justified using the 1977 Emergency Act. So of course, now he'll use another justification, and it'll take SC(R)OTUS another year to rule on those.

merc@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 21:09 collapse

That’s all of them, isn’t it? For all other tariffs he would have had to use the legislative branch, which he didn’t.

ceenote@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 17:07 collapse

If this was the fastest they could rule an executive action unconstitutional, it’s proof they need to adjust the process so they can do it faster.

Not that I think this Supreme Court is acting in good faith.

CatZoomies@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 15:43 next collapse

Ooh boy, refunds! Yay!

We should make sure to refund all the corporations and businesses - by court order! If we do that, surely it will trickle down this time.

Blueliner@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 15:58 next collapse

I can’t wait for prices to go back down.

bstix@feddit.dk on 20 Feb 16:06 next collapse

Lol.

A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip on 20 Feb 20:00 collapse

Bless your heart.

Blueliner@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 16:02 next collapse

Iranians right now

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/5e7cc2b9-e232-4eba-8ee5-9414bdcca81a.gif">

FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 16:05 next collapse

Good.

I’m sick of this indirect taxation bullshit.

rozodru@piefed.world on 20 Feb 16:06 next collapse

oh neat. so that means this ruling will be enforced right? ….right?

of course it won’t. it’s another dog and pony show from the US.

manxu@piefed.social on 20 Feb 16:08 next collapse

Important to note that the ruling just says Trump exceeded his authority in setting the tariffs, not that the tariffs themselves were illegal/unconstitutional. That means that Congress can authorize Trump to continue doing this. The question is whether Mike Johnson and John Thune have the numbers to pass that law. They already both quashed efforts to curb Trump’s authority before.

zikzak025@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 17:02 next collapse

I’m not too worried about additional tariffs passing through congress, though. That would have been the safer approach to try from the beginning if Trump’s people thought they could make it work. They opted for this workaround loophole nonsense specifically to go around congress because they had already ruled out the possibility of congressional approval.

I just don’t think Trump could ever manage to get enough support from congress. Certainly not with how unpopular the tariffs currently are, and certainly not right before the midterms.

manxu@piefed.social on 20 Feb 17:44 next collapse

But wouldn’t it be delightful if he actually tried, because that’s the only thing left to do and he can’t possibly give up on the tariffs?

That’s his one signature economic policy. Without tariffs, he’s got nothing. Even though they are unpopular, he still claims they just need more time, you’ll see how marvelous life is going to be when he hands the tariff checks to every household in America.

Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 19:42 collapse

He absolutely does not have the numbers to get this through congress. Across the aisle repubs and dems are mostly pro-business, pro-trade, and these tariffs don’t make an ounce of sense to any of them. Some GOP goons would vote for it just to make Trump happy, but way too many would rather protect their wealthy donors than protect the President. There’s not a lot of political future in making the Waltons unhappy.

merc@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 21:09 collapse

Across the aisle repubs and dems are mostly pro-business, pro-trade

Well, plenty of the MAGA republicans are pro-tectionist more than they are pro-trade. If he’d tried to pass new tariffs on day 1 of his administration there’s a chance that they might have had enough votes to do it. But, that was the slow way that required negotiating and compromise.

Now that people have seen just how awful the tariffs are, I think a lot of the MAGA republicans wouldn’t pass the legislation. They could have claimed ignorance before the tariffs passed, but now it’s hard for them to argue with a straight face that they’ll be good for America.

AA5B@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 17:50 next collapse

That’s fine, sort of. Maybe we’re all just traumatized by violating constitution, checks and balances, the rule of law, but I’d welcome the improvement if they were evil legally

arrow74@lemmy.zip on 20 Feb 18:23 collapse

Any other ruling wouldn’t have made sense. The issue was not about if tariffs are legal, but rather if the President has the authority to unilaterally set them.

bagsy@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 16:14 next collapse

So is this an impeachable offense? Im pretty sure if i broke federal law, i would be hunted down and thrown in jail.

umbrella@lemmy.ml on 20 Feb 16:21 next collapse

wow i bet trump is just terrified of consequences now!

pelespirit@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 16:29 next collapse

Okay, trump is going to be pissed about this, so why did they do it? Do they think he’s going to die or are there different handlers in play here that are losing money?

anon_8675309@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 16:50 next collapse

They see the tide turning. And Trump will be dead by summer. Time to start positioning JD as the good guy … then they’ll start their bullshit up again…

pelespirit@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 16:52 next collapse

I suspect you’re right on the money, since their handlers are probably trump’s handlers too.

anon_8675309@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 17:53 collapse

There’s a term that I can’t recall about positioning a bad person as a less bad alternative in order to gain support.

So basically the theory is when Trump goes, they’ll say, look he was the bad one, it’ll all be better now with this other guy.

rbos@lemmy.ca on 20 Feb 18:55 collapse

Beast Rabban is dead, long love kind, glorious Feyd-Rautha!

takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 20 Feb 17:33 collapse

I’m wondering if contributing factor could be that he is giving himself 10 billion of taxpayer’s money? He is straight stealing from us, literally to his own bank account in Qatar.

He would have to ask Congress if it weren’t for the tariffs.

avidamoeba@lemmy.ca on 20 Feb 16:36 next collapse

So are they going to pack the far-left, woke, DEI court now?

GreenShimada@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 17:18 next collapse

It’s especially unsurprising that OAN (my bellwether for batshit crazy conservative stuff) aren’t even reporting on this.

These people live in an entirely different universe of ignorance.

3jane@piefed.ca on 20 Feb 17:53 next collapse

I wonder how many companies were put out of business by these tariffs?

jaschen306@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 18:11 collapse

My brother in law supplied bubble tea material for bubble tea shops in both the Portland and Vegas area. He shut down 2 months ago because of the tariffs. His increased price made shops in those areas shut down and ultimately he decided enough was enough.

D_C@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 18:08 next collapse

Another illegal {insert thing here}?

Oh, wow, is it time to arrest and charge?
Or, will you do nothing just like the 7456 times the fat cunt broke your laws in the last year and you did fuck all?

the_artic_one@programming.dev on 20 Feb 18:52 next collapse

An illegal executive order isn’t a crime, it just doesn’t count.

FreddiesLantern@leminal.space on 20 Feb 19:31 next collapse

This seems like a job for drumroll+horns CHUCK SHUMER & HAKEEM JEFFRIES

Dynamic duo of incompetence extraordinaire!

GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 20:15 collapse

“HAKEEM! get the paper! I’ll get the pen and meet me in the cafeteria for another ‘strongly worded letter’ writing session!”

FreddiesLantern@leminal.space on 20 Feb 20:30 collapse

At this point Chucks glasses were so far down his nose Hakeem knew it was about time the Baileys were about to show up in person.

Would they be as concerned as Chumer? Find out this and more in the next thrilling episode.

NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 21:47 collapse

I’m not sure something like this would ever have resulted in an arrest? Even in other countries?

An impeachment and conviction and removal from office though should be in the cards, but obviously won’t be.

ape_arms@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 19:17 next collapse

It doesn’t matter. Remember all those times when Trump & Co set a tariff percentage, then lowered it a few weeks later? I wonder why? Maybe somebody made a “donation” to his bitcoin account. He got what he wanted.

laranis@lemmy.zip on 20 Feb 22:32 collapse

Art of the Deal ™

Tempus_Fugit@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 19:22 next collapse

Did Howard Lutnick just make millions?

DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 20:08 next collapse

I’m shocked! SHOCKED I tell you!

I am. Sincerely, I’m shocked. This is quite the surprise.

goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org on 20 Feb 20:16 collapse

It’s not the 6-3 ruling I expected at all. Was fully thinking would be 6-3 that it was okay for him to do it not saying he can’t

kandoh@reddthat.com on 20 Feb 20:22 next collapse

Understand that this is SCOTUS believing they’re helping Trump by removing the unpopular tariffs while handing out huge amounts of cash in an election year

DetectiveNo64@lemmy.ca on 20 Feb 21:32 next collapse

Same here, they enable everything else he’s done.

ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 22:13 collapse

I mean it’s such an incredibly unambiguous 9-0 on a legal basis and he still got three nonetheless.

DarkFuture@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 20:13 next collapse

So the Supreme Court finally found out what we all already knew?

But a few of them clearly still haven’t gotten the memo?

I mean I’m trying to be happy about this news, but it’s kind of just more proof how pathetic and corrupt our SC is.

sobchak@programming.dev on 20 Feb 20:17 next collapse

At his White House news conference, Trump announced alternative options, including an immediate 10% global tariff.

Lol, the US is a clown show.

Gates9@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 21:13 next collapse

“They have made their ruling, now let us see them enforce it.”

Now several companies will sue my government for damages.

yaaaaay

Gammelfisch@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 21:24 next collapse

Good, but prices continue to rise every time the orange dumbfuck yaps about tariffs.

Doomsider@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 21:39 next collapse

The Supreme Court sided with business over the US government. No surprise there. According to the law this whole action was illegal. I am surprised it was not unanimous and had three dissenters.

Where in the fuck do companies get off thinking the tariffs, paid by consumer, is going to be refunded to them!?

Suavevillain@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 22:18 next collapse

What is he going to do with all the imaginary revenue from the tariffs now lol?

llamatron@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 22:27 next collapse

As if that’ll stop the orange nonce.

While him and his enablers suffer no consequences then he is defacto above the law

johncandy1812@lemmy.ca on 20 Feb 22:29 next collapse

Womp womp

LoafedBurrito@lemmy.world on 20 Feb 22:30 next collapse

He ignored the court ruling, keeps all the tariffs in place AND he raises them 10% just because the supreme court made him angry.

Think about how batshit crazy that is.

Also, funny some of you think they will refund the money. That won’t happen because they will refuse to do it. Very simple for the EPSTIEN administration to just refuse legal orders. He’s immune by the same supreme court.

Qwaffle_waffle@sh.itjust.works on 20 Feb 22:32 next collapse

He came back with another one.

www.nytimes.com/…/trump-tariffs-supreme-court

Redacted@piefed.ca on 20 Feb 22:34 collapse

So let me get this straight, the companies that raised their prices based on Trump’s tariffs get to apply for a refund with no requirement to lower prices and pass that refund on to the consumers by who actually had to pony up the money at the ‘cash register’ every day. Once again, corporations get an undeserved bailout while the American consumer gets shafted. Typical.