New Delhi: Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh during the rejoining of Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Mausam Noor to the Indian National Congress at the party headquarters, in New Delhi, Saturday, January 3, 2026. (Photo: IANS/Qamar Sibtain)
New Delhi, February 20 (IANS) Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh has hailed the US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that struck down most of the sweeping tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.
In a post on his X handle, Ramesh wrote, “Hats off to the US Supreme Court for striking down President Trump’s entire tariff strategy! Quite an amazing decision given its ideological composition. A 6-3 verdict is decisive.”
The ruling delivered on Friday marks a major setback to Trump’s economic agenda.
The conservative-led court, in a rare move, curtailed the President’s use of executive power, declaring that he lacked authority under a 1977 emergency law to impose broad import levies on America’s trading partners, including India.
Politico described the 6-3 decision as “a major repudiation of a core piece of Trump’s economic programme.”
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, underscored the constitutional limits of presidential authority. “The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorisation to exercise it,” Roberts stated.
He added that the 1977 law Trump relied upon “falls short” of the required congressional approval.
According to the US media, the justices ruled the President did not have the authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose such sweeping tariffs.
The Hill further observed that the court “cast aside the bulk of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs Friday, obliterating a canon of his economic strategy in ruling that his use of an emergency statute to remake global trade was unlawful.”
The justices rejected Trump’s expanded interpretation of IEEPA, which allows Presidents to regulate imports in response to national emergencies posing “unusual and extraordinary” threats.
Roberts clarified: “We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs. We claim only, as we must, the limited role assigned to us by Article III of the Constitution. Fulfilling that role, we hold that IEEPA does not authorise the President to impose tariffs.”
