By MAKAYLA JOHNSON ’27
Updated 11:50 a.m. EDT, 19 Sept 2025
After lower courts ruled President Donald Trump’s tariffs illegal, the US Supreme Court has agreed to expedite the hearing to determine their legality. The court is allowing the tariffs to stand during the deliberation process, which will begin the first week of November, according to CNN Supreme Court and Business reporters John Fritze and Elisabeth Buchwald.
The tariffs are a result of Trump invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which “impose[s] levies ranging from 10% to 50% on dozens of trading partners,” Danielle Kaye, a Business reporter for the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), said. The Trump administration also used the emergency law to apply tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada.
Kaye said the Supreme Court “has so far been amenable to temporarily instating Trump’s policies.” This court ruling will “mark the court’s first assessment of the legal basis for one of his administration’s most far-reaching policies.” It is unclear which way the court will lean on the ruling at present.
What would it mean for the US economy if the Supreme Court overturned the tariffs? Kaye said that the “questions will remain over whether the US will have to pay back billions of dollars that have been gathered by import taxes on products.” In addition, she said that current trade deals could be thrown into chaos.
Hank Berrien, reporter for the Daily Wire, wrote that the consequences of a reversal “could cripple the Treasury and kneecap America’s economic leverage.” Berrien said that the longer the Supreme Court takes to rule, the more money the United States government will owe, “the total potentially…reach[ing] up to $1 trillion.” Berrien quoted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who warned that a refund such as this would harm the financial state of the nation, as well as “undermine the U.S. negotiating position globally,” “slow the progress made on rebalancing trade” and potentially harm the “economic momentum” Trump has begun.
While waiting for the Supreme Court ruling, it is beneficial to know how the tariffs affect the US economy. Fritze and Buchwald of CNN said that it will be “a precarious time for the United States economy.” They state that in the first week of September, “the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that tariff-sensitive sectors” let go tens of thousands of workers. Fritze and Buchwald wrote that the overall labor market looks to be weakening, as employers only hired “22,000 workers last month.”
As for the long-term economy, Assistant Professor of Finance Jared Pemberton at Houghton University (HU) said that he doesn’t “see this having much impact in the long term,” since the tariffs are fairly recent, having been “enacted at the beginning of April.” The only potential long-term damage Pemberton stated was in terms of “the relationships between the U.S. and countries [which] we trade with” often. He added that the extent of this impact would largely depend on “how President Trump and his administration respond if the tariffs are overturned.”
When asked how the tariffs being reversed could impact students at HU, Pemberton stated, “I do not believe this would have a large impact on college students’ lives.” He continued saying that tuition isn’t directly impacted by tariffs, “nor does it have a direct relationship with the current goods and services” affected by Trump’s tariffs. Additionally, he said that the cost of items and resources students use could be reduced, “but that is difficult to make a definitive statement on.”
The Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on Trump’s tariffs carries significant implications for the US economy, but the direct impact on college students at HU appears limited. The ruling will determine the future of these policies and their broader economic effects. ★
