International Emergency Economic Powers Act

IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.

- Chief Justice Roberts, for the Court, Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, No. 24-1287 (U.S. Feb. 20, 2026)

What Is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act?

IEEPA was the engine of the 2025 tariffs and it is no longer available for that purpose. The statute lets the President, after declaring a national emergency, "investigate, block during the pendency of an investigation, regulate, direct and compel, nullify, void, prevent or prohibit" transactions including importation. The administration read the words "regulate ... importation" to include the power to tax imports, and on that reading imposed the drug trafficking tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China and the reciprocal tariffs on all trading partners. On February 20, 2026 the Supreme Court rejected that reading 6 to 3. The Court began with Article I, Section 8, which gives Congress the power to lay duties, and noted the Government conceded the President has no inherent peacetime tariff power, so everything rested on the statute. Two textual points did the work. First, the nine verbs in the operative clause describe distinct regulatory actions and none of them mentions tariffs, duties, or taxes. Second, the same clause covers importation and exportation together, and the Constitution forbids taxing exports, so reading "regulate" as "tax" would give the President a power in one half of the phrase that is unconstitutional in the other half. The practical result matters as much as the holding. The Court affirmed the Federal Circuit in the V.O.S. Selections case, which had been filed in the Court of International Trade. It vacated the judgment in Learning Resources, which had been filed in district court, and remanded with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. Same holding, opposite procedural fate, and the difference was choosing the right courthouse.