Gregory Husisian Assesses Legality of Trump Tariffs Ahead of SCOTUS Case

Foley & Lardner Gregory Husisian assessed the Trump administration’s trade actions under the International Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA) in the CNN article, “Big business sits out the Supreme Court fight over Donald Trump’s tariffs,” and Logistics Management article, “Supreme Court to hear expedited review on legality of White House IEEPA tariffs this week.”

With the U.S. Supreme Court set to hear arguments on November 5, 2025, on whether the administration’s imposition of tariffs under IEEPA is lawful, Husisian observed in Logistics Management that until the Court issues a ruling, the tariffs continue unabated at higher levels.

“Congress has largely abdicated its role in setting tariffs, which are just a particular type of tax,” he explained. “So, it’s supposed to be with them, and they have not been pushing back on President Trump. The trade team is continuing to negotiate tariffs with partners abroad and looking to expand on the deals that have already been announced and are also moving forward with USMCA negotiations. Everyone is wondering if these tariffs are even lawful—and more importantly, it is expected that the White House is just going to shift to a different legal basis for them.”

Husisian anticipated that should the Supreme Court rule against the administration, the White House could pivot to other means to levy tariffs, including on national security, unfair trade practice, or anti-discrimination grounds.

He added that there also remains the question of what becomes of the duties already collected under the IEEPA tariffs, should they be overturned.

“The biggest uncertainty right now, is people are saying they don’t know where things are going to end up because of the negotiations on the global and reciprocal tariffs, and we don’t know what the Supreme Court is going to do, and whether it’s going to be struck down,” Husisian continued. “And the longer the shutdown goes on, the more problematic it becomes.”

“There are a lot of calculations going on,” Husisian told CNN of companies deciding whether to weigh in on the case, given the breadth of issues already before the court.

Husisian’s commentary also appeared in Yahoo Finance, AOL, and RawStory.