As the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s broad tariffs on Friday, Justice Brett Kavanaugh referenced the duties imposed on India over its Russian oil purchases in his dissent
As the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s broad tariffs on Friday, Justice Brett Kavanaugh referenced the duties imposed on India over its Russian oil purchases in his dissent.
Trump had initially levied 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on India, along with an additional 25 per cent punitive tariff tied to Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.
While the reciprocal tariffs were later reduced to 18 per cent, the 25 per cent charges for Russian oil imports were lifted after India committed to halting both direct and indirect energy purchases from Moscow and to buying American energy products instead.
In a 6–3 ruling, the court determined that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not grant the president authority to impose such duties.
Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samuel Alito, and Justice Kavanaugh dissented.
“As with tariffs on foreign imports historically, the IEEPA tariffs on foreign imports at issue in this case implicate foreign affairs. According to the Government, the President has leveraged the IEEPA tariffs into trade deals with major trading partners, including China, the United Kingdom, and Japan, among other countries.
“The Government says that the tariffs have helped make certain foreign markets more accessible to American businesses and have contributed to trade deals with foreign nations worth trillions of dollars,” Kavanaugh wrote in his opinion in the case.
“Moreover, consistent with history and the traditional uses of tariffs, the President ‘is exercising his IEEPA authority in connection with highly sensitive negotiations he is conducting to end the conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine’,” he wrote.
“….To that end, on August 6, 2025, the President imposed tariffs on India for “directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil”… And on February 6, 2026, the President reduced the tariffs on India because, according to the Government, India had “committed to stop directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil.”
“To be sure, most foreign affairs and national security actions – whether war, international agreements, trade deals, or tariffs – lead to significant domestic ramifications within the United States. And this case is no exception. Nonetheless, in the foreign affairs field, courts interpret statutes as written, with appropriate respect to Congress and the President and without a major questions doctrine weight on the scale against the President,” he wrote.
With inputs from agencies
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