The U.S. Supreme Court Friday will rule on tariffs issued by the Trump administration under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, holding the fate of tariffs on China, Canada, the European Union, and other major economies in its hands. Lower courts have ruled against the president’s use of the IEEPA to enact his country-specific tariffs. But experts say if the Supreme Court were to side with the Trump administration, it could lend the president the power to tax with the same authority and broad swaths as he did with the tariffs in question.
“The law at issue here—IEEPA—doesn’t only apply to imports; it authorizes the president to regulate imports, exports, sales, use, holding, a whole bunch of activity,” Timothy Meyer, professor of international business law at Duke University, told Fortune. “If the government were to win just on this interpretation of this law, the president would have the ability to tax, to impose sales taxes, he could impose property taxes.”
