The Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear the Trump administration’s tariffs appeal on an expedited basis, in a case with vast implications for the economy and presidential power, setting a fast briefing schedule with a hearing to come in November.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled against the administration Aug. 29, reasoning that the federal law invoked by President Donald Trump didn’t give him the authority he claimed. The circuit court kept its ruling on hold to provide a chance to appeal. The administration did so, asking the justices to hear the case on an expedited timeline. The justices agreed on Tuesday, also granting review in another tariff-related case that was pending before the court, consolidating the two appeals to consider together.
The court, whose next term starts in October, generally decides the term’s cases by early July. Given the expedited timeline on which the court agreed to hear the tariffs case, a decision could come well before then, although the justices aren’t on a deadline to rule.
Framing the matter as urgent, the administration told the justices that the circuit ruling “has disrupted highly impactful, sensitive, ongoing diplomatic trade negotiations, and cast a pall of legal uncertainty over the President’s efforts to protect our country by preventing an unprecedented economic and foreign-policy crisis.” Trump previously said that a ruling against him on the matter would “literally destroy the United States of America.”
The Roberts Court has granted Trump extensive power so far in his second term, with this latest case posing a test for how far that power goes. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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