Congressman Cleo Fields' Statement on Supreme Court Ruling to Strike Down President Trump's Emergency Tariffs

BATON ROUGE, L.A. - Today, Congressman Cleo Fields issued the following statement following the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, holding that President Trump's expansive tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were unlawful:

"Today's ruling by the Supreme Court confirms what many of us have maintained from the very beginning: the President of the United States cannot unilaterally impose taxes on the American people without congressional authorization. We said it then, and the highest court in the land is saying it now.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the administration 'points to no statute' in which Congress authorized the use of IEEPA for tariff-making. That should come as no surprise. No president in the nearly 50-year history of that law had ever attempted to use it this way - because it was never intended for this purpose.

The consequences of this executive overreach fell on hardworking American people. Families across District 6 spent the past year paying higher prices on groceries, automobiles, appliances, and goods of every kind - not because of a foreign threat, but because of an executive overreach that bypassed thepeople's elected representatives. While we warned that would happen, today, the Court vindicated the families who bore those costs.

I want to be clear: I support robust, enforceable trade policy that protects American workers and holds bad actors accountable. But that work belongs to Congress, as it always has. It must be done through legislation, through negotiation, and through the rule of law.

I call on the administration to comply fully with this ruling, to stop looking for workarounds that would simply recreate what the Court has struck down, and to work with Congress on a legitimate path forward.

Americans have always believed that power must have limits and I strongly support the Courts decision today reaffirming that fact."

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