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Dec 20, 2025

Kavanagh’s ‘Roadmap’ Ruling Gives Trump Tariff Wiggle Room: Expert

A Supreme Court ruling blocking former President Donald Trump’s use of broad tariff powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) may still leave alternative avenues available to the administration, according to a legal analyst on Wednesday.

Elliot Williams, a CNN legal analyst and former deputy assistant attorney general in the Obama administration, discussed the decision on The Bulwark’s “Illegal News” podcast. Williams said that although the Court rejected Trump’s use of IEEPA to impose sweeping global tariffs, Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s dissent identified other statutory mechanisms that could allow the president to levy tariffs under more limited circumstances.

“Justice Kavanaugh did sort of lay out a bit of a roadmap for saying that, yes, there are avenues for the president to get some tariffs,” Williams said during the interview.

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