The Supreme Court Struck Down Trump's Tariffs. They're Back Hours Later — With a New Legal Label
The Trump administration just imposed tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on roughly 60 countries — including China, Japan, South Korea, India, and EU members — hours before a temporary blanket levy expired. But the headline number isn't the real story. The real story is how these tariffs came back after the Supreme Court struck the last batch down, and what that maneuver means for whether any court can durably constrain trade policy.
Bottom Line
This is less a trade story than a separation-of-powers story wearing a trade story's clothes. The Supreme Court blocked one version of these tariffs in February; a functionally similar version returned within months under a forced-labor justification that will be far harder to strike down. If the maneuver holds up, it establishes a template — for this administration and every one after it — for rebuilding court-blocked policy under new legal packaging. The tariffs will hit prices. The precedent will hit something bigger.