Kavanagh’s ‘Roadmap’ Ruling Gives Trump Tariff Wiggle Room: Expert

A Supreme Court ruling blocking former President Donald Trump’s use of broad tariff powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) may still leave alternative avenues available to the administration, according to a legal analyst on Wednesday.

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Elliot Williams, a CNN legal analyst and former deputy assistant attorney general in the Obama administration, discussed the decision on The Bulwark’s “Illegal News” podcast. Williams said that although the Court rejected Trump’s use of IEEPA to impose sweeping global tariffs, Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s dissent identified other statutory mechanisms that could allow the president to levy tariffs under more limited circumstances.

“Justice Kavanaugh did sort of lay out a bit of a roadmap for saying that, yes, there are avenues for the president to get some tariffs,” Williams said during the interview.In his dissent, Kavanaugh expressed support for broader presidential tariff authority under IEEPA but noted that other statutes may provide limited authority. He referenced the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the Trade Act of 1974 and the Tariff Act of 1930 as potential alternative legal bases for tariffs.The laws allow a president to impose tariffs, but these tariffs are only temporary, have lower maximum rates than those previously used by Trump, and require him to provide specific findings to justify their implementation. In his dissent, Kavanaugh pointed out that “the president checked the wrong statutory box” when he issued tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

Trump later expressed that he was “proud” of Kavanaugh’s dissent during a briefing about the decision and has moved forward with plans to implement new tariffs using Section 122 of the Trade Act. However, Williams explained that without the IEEPA, Trump’s ability to impose tariffs as quickly and broadly as he had done before is no longer feasible, comparing his situation to winning a luxury car but then being forced to drive an older, beat-up model.

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“It is impossible for the president to get the kinds of tariffs, one, that he ran on, and two, that he tried to put in place on ‘Liberation Day,’ whatever it was, in April of [2025],” said Williams.