U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 26, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday appealed to the Supreme Court a federal court ruling that said that most of his global tariffs are illegal, setting up a legal clash that could determine the future of his trade agenda.
While the formal appeal was expected and the court still needs to accept it, this likely now puts the fate of Trump’s sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” into the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The filing comes after a federal appeals court on Aug. 29 said that most of Trump’s April 2 “reciprocal tariffs” were illegal, throwing the central tenet of his economic agenda into limbo.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in a 7-4 decision that Trump overstepped his presidential authority when he implemented the steep levies on virtually every country.
Trump used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to impose the steep levies on trading partners, declaring the United States’ federal deficit with other nations a national emergency.
But the appeals court said that “tariffs are a core Congressional power,” not a presidential authority.
“The core Congressional power to impose taxes such as tariffs is vested exclusively in the legislative branch by the Constitution,” the court said.
The appeals court ruling does not take effect until Oct. 14, giving the Trump administration time to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
In its appeal Wednesday, the Trump administration quoted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s declaration that the appeals court ruling “though judicially stayed, raises legal uncertainty about [the President’s IEEPA] tariffs that gravely undermines the President’s ability to conduct real-world diplomacy and his ability to protect the national security and economy of the United States.”
The Supreme Court is likely to take up the case over Trump’s tariffs, according to SCOTUSblog, and a decision could come in the summer of 2026.
This is a developing story and will be updated.