Supreme Court Voids IEEPA Tariffs; Trump Immediately Re-imposes 10 % Import Duty Under Trade Act §122

Presidents have raced courts before: in 1971 Richard Nixon, facing a sliding dollar, slapped a 10 % “surcharge” under the same 1974 Act’s predecessor one day after ending gold convertibility; Congress only caught up months later. Trump’s manoeuvre reprises that playbook, exploiting broad but temporary statutory tools whenever longer-term powers are rebuffed. The episode underscores a 50-year drift of trade authority toward the White House, a trend Congress ceded during the Cold War and globalization booms. The Court’s decision, citing the major-questions doctrine, hints at push-back reminiscent of the 1936 Schechter ruling that checked New Deal overreach, yet the immediate re-tariff shows how elastic U.S. trade law still is. Over a century horizon this tussle may mark an inflection: either Congress reasserts its Article I tariff power, or episodic executive tariffs—once rare—become a normalized lever, amplifying policy whiplash for businesses and allies and eroding the post-1994 WTO order.