Republican tariff skeptics on Capitol Hill celebrated Friday after the Supreme Court struck down the core authority behind President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs — dealing a blow to a major plank of the president’s agenda but offering a welcome off-ramp to GOP lawmakers who viewed the levies as a political loser.
Retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) broke with Trump and GOP leaders a week ago to help overturn Trump’s Canada tariffs. On Friday, he hailed the “common sense ruling” by the high court that essentially invalidates those and many other tariffs.
“The checks and balances our Constitution puts in place works,” Bacon said in an interview Friday morning shortly after the decision, adding, “I feel vindicated.”
Another Republican who backed the effort to overturn the Canada tariffs, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, also praised the ruling.
“On its face, this case was obvious, because the Constitution vests the power to tax with the legislative branch, not the Executive branch,” Massie said in a text message. “No contrived emergency can undo that.”
Speaker Mike Johnson sidestepped any praise or criticism of the ruling, saying that Trump’s tariffs had “brought in billions of dollars and created immense leverage for America’s trade strategy.”
“Congress and the Administration will determine the best path forward in the coming weeks,” he said in a statement.
Johnson later Friday postponed a trade briefing for a group of House Republicans, including tariff skeptics, that he had scheduled for Monday evening, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private plans.
The lawmakers were set to meet in the speaker’s office with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who has played a lead role in assuaging wary Republicans about Trump’s sweeping tariff regime as Democrats push to bring the matter to the House floor. A staffer in the speaker’s office said a new date and time for the discussion would be set “soon.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) in a statement said his members would “continue working with the administration and our colleagues in the House to advance our shared goal to strengthen rural America, including South Dakota’s farm and ranch communities, and the broader U.S. economy.”
But Trump, during a news conference Friday afternoon, made clear he had no interest in engaging Congress further on the matter. In announcing his plans to slap a new “10% global tariff” on goods coming into the U.S., Trump said he would not ask lawmakers to take additional action: “I don’t need to. It’s already been approved. I mean — I would ask Congress and probably get it.”
He added, “I have the right to do tariffs. And I’ve always had the right to do tariffs.”
In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling, Trump appeared visibly upset at the decision, according to two people in the room granted anonymity to describe the private event, cutting short remarks he was delivering to governors upon hearing the news at a White House breakfast Friday morning.
“He was not happy. He got the info in real time,” one of the people said.
The ruling comes just four days before Trump is set to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress and an audience that will include the Supreme Court justices who rebuffed the cornerstone of his economic and foreign policy agendas. Trump said during his Friday news conference that the six justices who ruled against his tariffs were “barely” invited to the address and “I couldn’t care less if they come.”
A few GOP backers of the tariffs quickly spoke out, with Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio decrying the ruling as “outrageous” and saying it “handcuffs our fight against unfair trade that has devastated American workers for decades.”
“These tariffs protected jobs, revived manufacturing, and forced cheaters like China to pay up. Now globalists win,” Moreno added in a social media post Friday.
The ruling also prompted tough questions for both parties about what comes next. Bacon indicated the decision could put an end to a flood of additional tariff disapproval votes headed to the House floor in the coming weeks.
“We’ll see if it’s necessary,” he said.
But House Democrats could keep hammering Republicans on the topic in the weeks ahead. Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Foreign Affairs Committee Democrat who has orchestrated the tariff disapproval votes, said he would “continue to review the SCOTUS ruling to assess future legislative steps,” though there are no plans at the moment to force additional disapproval votes next week, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
Senate Democrats, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss private strategy, are waiting to see how Trump responds to the decision before determining whether to force more votes disapproving of individual emergency declarations.
Democrats in the Senate had hoped to put up the House-passed Canada resolution for a vote in the coming weeks, but there are ongoing internal conversations over whether it qualifies for special fast-track procedures allowing for a quick simple-majority vote, according to a second person granted anonymity to describe the matter.
Other Democrats said further action was needed to forestall the Trump administration from sidestepping the ruling, possibly by invoking separate national security powers. Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, who chairs the House Democratic campaign arm and sits on the chamber’s main trade panel, noted that the White House “has promised to use other avenues to maintain these illegal tariffs.”
“Congress must step up to put an end to this chaos and protect our economy,” she added.
Asked about the prospect of Trump trying to implement his tariffs through other avenues, Bacon said, “I think they’ll try, but it would not be advisable.” Friday’s ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts broadly defended Congress’ sole power under the Constitution to levy taxes.
Congress might also end up having to wrangle with the question of whether refunds are due to businesses or consumers who paid levies now found to be illegal.
“The Court has struck down these destructive tariffs, but there is no legal mechanism for consumers and many small businesses to recoup the money they have already paid,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) noted in a statement. “Instead, giant corporations with their armies of lawyers and lobbyists can sue for tariff refunds, then just pocket the money for themselves.”
Some Republicans are also urging congressional action in response to the ruling, with Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, who chairs the Select Committee on China, pressing for a revocation of Beijing’s permanent normal trade relations status.
But to the handful of GOP lawmakers who stuck to their free-trade guns as Trump unleashed his global tariff campaign, the overwhelming sentiment has been relief and praise for the high court.
Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.), who joined Bacon and Massie in opposing the Canada tariffs last week, said in an interview that the ruling was “an example of our institution working” and called on Congress to set trade policy in concert with Trump.
“We need to make sure that when it comes to trade policy that we have stability and predictability,” he said. “And the way that we get that predictability and stability is through congressional action.”
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who orchestrated the confirmations of several justices who participated in the ruling in his former role as Republican leader, said the justices “reaffirmed authority that has rested with Congress for centuries.”
“If the executive would like to enact trade policies that impact American producers and consumers, its path forward is crystal clear,” he said in a statement. “Convince their representatives under Article 1” of the Constitution.
Jordain Carney, Daniel Desrochers and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
‘I feel vindicated’: Anti-tariff Republicans cheer as Supreme Court checks Trump
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