U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a "Make America Wealthy Again" trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Lawyers for the Trump administration countered that text of the IEEPA emergency law is the "practical equivalent" of a tariff.
"Tomorrow's United States Supreme Court case is, literally, LIFE OR DEATH for our Country," Trump posted on Truth Social back in November.
"With a Victory, we have tremendous, but fair, Financial and National Security. Without it, we are virtually defenseless against other Countries who have, for years, taken advantage of us," Trump continued.
"Our Stock Market is consistently hitting Record Highs, and our Country has never been more respected than it is right now," he added. "A big part of this is the Economic Security created by Tariffs, and the Deals that we have negotiated because of them."
While U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer acknowledged to the justices that IEEPA does not explicitly give an executive the power to regulate tariffs, he stressed in November that the power to tariff is "the natural common sense inference" of IEEPA.
But whether the high court will back his argument remains to be seen.
That was the conclusion reached by the U.S. Court of International Trade last year. Judges on the three-judge panel voted unanimously to block Trump's tariffs from taking force, ruling that, as commander in chief, Trump does not have "unbounded authority" to impose tariffs under the emergency law.
"The parties cite two doctrines—the nondelegation doctrine and the major questions doctrine—that the judiciary has developed to ensure that the branches do not impermissibly abdicate their respective constitutionally vested powers," the court said in its ruling.
The doctrine was also a focus in November, as justices pressed lawyers for the administration over IEEPA's applicability to tariffs, or taxation powers, and asked the administration what guardrails, if any, exist to limit the whims of the executive branch, should they ultimately rule in Trump’s favor.
Though it's not clear how much the court will rely on the MQD in its ruling, legal experts told Fox News Digital that they would expect it to potentially be cited by the Supreme Court if it blocks Trump's tariff regime.
US COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE SIDES WITH TRUMP IN TARIFF CASE
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
One factor that could play in Trump's favor is the fact that the tariffs case is to some degree a foreign policy issue, which is an area where executives enjoy a higher level of deference from the court.
Still, if oral arguments were any indication, the justices seemed poised to block Trump's use of IEEPA to continue his steep tariff plan.
Justices pressed Sauer as to why Trump invoked IEEPA to impose his sweeping tariffs, noting that doing so would be the first time a president used the law to set import taxes on trading partners.
They also seemed skeptical of the administration's assertion that they did not need additional permission from Congress to use the law in such a sweeping manner, and pressed the administration's lawyers on their contention that EEPA is only narrowly reviewable by the courts.
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"We agree that it's a major power, but it's in the context of a statute that is explicitly conferring major powers," Sauer said. "That the point of the statute is to confer major powers to address major questions — which are emergencies."
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI and other national news. She previously covered national politics at the Washington Examiner and The Washington Post, with additional bylines in Politico Magazine, the Colorado Gazette and others. You can send tips to Breanne at Breanne.Deppisch@fox.com, or follow her on X at @breanne_dep.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trumps-tariffs-could-be-undone-by-one-conservative-doctrine-life-death