Justice Brett Kavanaugh offered President Donald Trump a workaround to the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday that struck down Trump’s broad use of emergency powers to impose tariffs as a tool of foreign policy.

In April, Trumpimposed tariffsunder a 1977 emergency powers law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, citing a record $1.4 trillion trade deficit in 2024.

In Friday’s 6-3 ruling, the high courtheldIEEPA “does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”

Chief Justice John Robertswrote for the majority, joined by conservative JusticesAmy Coney Barrettand Neil Gorsuch, as well as the liberals on the bench: Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kavanaugh, along with conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, dissented.

In his dissentingopinion, Kavanaugh wrote, “Although I firmly disagree with the Court’s holding today, the decision might not substantially constrain a President’s ability to order tariffs going forward. That is because numerous other federal statutes authorize the President to impose tariffs and might justify most (if not all) of the tariffs at issue in this case—albeit perhaps with a few additional procedural steps that IEEPA, as an emergency statute, does not require.”

“Those statutes include, for example, the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (Section 232); the Trade Act of 1974 (Sections 122, 201, and 301); and the Tariff Act of 1930 (Section 338). In essence, the Court today concludes that the President checked the wrong statutory box by relying on IEEPA rather than another statute to impose these tariffs,” he argued.

Kavanaugh points out that even if today’s mess of a ruling creates all sorts of chaos for previously imposed tariffs, Trump has many other options for imposing tariffs going forward.pic.twitter.com/Rdw2ab4o1G

— Mollie (@MZHemingway)February 20, 2026

Kavanaughadded, “In the meantime, however, the interim effects of the Court’s decision could be substantial. The United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others. As was acknowledged at oral argument, the refund process is likely to be a ‘mess.’

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