WASHINGTON, D.C. — A sharp and unusually public clash erupted inside the Supreme Court as Justice Neil Gorsuch rebuked fellow conservative justices for siding with President Donald Trump’s emergency tariff powers.
In the Court’s 6–3 ruling striking down tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Gorsuch joined the majority while Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented. In a pointed solo concurrence in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, Gorsuch questioned how his colleagues could reconcile their current position with past rulings limiting executive power.
Gorsuch relied heavily on the “major questions doctrine,” which requires explicit congressional authorization for sweeping executive actions. He noted that Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh previously invoked that doctrine to block President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan in Biden v. Nebraska (2023). Now, he argued, they were willing to grant Trump expansive tariff authority without similar statutory clarity.
The dissenters claimed tariff authority implicates foreign affairs, warranting greater presidential discretion. Gorsuch countered by pointing to West Virginia v. EPA (2022), where the Court applied the major questions doctrine despite global climate concerns.
The ruling exposes a rare ideological fracture within the Court’s conservative wing and intensifies debate over constitutional limits on presidential power.
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