When the Supreme Court hears arguments on November 5 in President Donald Trump’s tariff case, the justices won’t just be weighing a constitutional question—they’ll be deciding the fate of billions of dollars in global commerce.
The case, which challenges Trump’s sweeping tariffs imposed under emergency powers, has become a defining moment for business leaders navigating a volatile trade landscape already reshaped by uncertainty, inflation, and geopolitical rivalry.
As former Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar noted at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference, the Supreme Court now faces a “hard question” about whether to disrupt a sitting president’s signature economic policy after it has already reshaped the global trade landscape.
“Even if the tariffs had never been able to take effect, now that they have come in and changed the status quo, the court might ultimately really have pause and concern before disrupting the President’s economic policy in this way,” she told Fortune’s Michal Lev-Ram.
The potential economic fallout from reversing Trump’s tariff policy may ultimately guide the Court’s hand. “The government is coming to court and saying, ‘We would have to unwind billions or trillions of dollars. It could bankrupt our nation,’” Prelogar added. “It would be incredibly disruptive to try to scramble those eggs,” referring to the billions of dollars already collected and distributed under the policy.
Tariff controversy
Trump’s move to impose 10% reciprocal tariffs on all imports—rising to as high as 50% for major trading partners—under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) marked one of the most aggressive uses of executive trade authority in U.S. history. His administration has since reportedly collected $158 billion in tariffs, arguing that striking them down would “impossible to ever recover” and destabilize ongoing trade negotiations. Treasury Secretary Scott…