US Supreme Court blocks Trump tariffs: What will happen to $2,000 stimulus checks?

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the 6-3 decision that the president claimed “extraordinary authority” to impose tariffs of unlimited scope and duration without express authorization from Congress. Given constitutional and historical limits on executive power, such authority must be expressly granted by Congress, Roberts wrote.

In an interview with The New York Times in early January, he said checks could arrive at households by the end of 2026, but details about eligibility and distribution have not yet been finalized.

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Even before the ruling, experts questioned whether the tariffs would generate enough revenue to support the payments. Without those tariffs, the financing mechanism is now even more uncertain, the Providence Journal reported.

Trump warned on social media in January that overturning the tariffs would jeopardize the proposal.

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“We get taxes, we get tariffs, we get revenue from a lot of places, and then Congress decides how to spend that money,” he said.

No stimulus payments have been approved yet, and with tariff revenue gone, the fate of any $2,000 checks remains unclear.