Supreme Court Reshapes Trade Policy, Parental Rights, and Patent Law With Major Rulings in 2024

The Supreme Court has issued several significant rulings in recent days that are reshaping major policy areas.

In a landmark decision on tariffs, the Court ruled 6-3 that President Trump lacked the authority to impose sweeping tariffs under a 1977 law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. This decision, handed down on February 20th, determined that tariff authority rests with Congress alone, not the executive branch. In response to this ruling, the Trump administration invoked Section 122 of the Trade Act and introduced a new 10% tariff on all imports from all countries, with the option to increase it to 15%. These temporary measures under Section 122 are limited to 150 days and will expire on July 24th unless Congress extends them. The administration still retains authority under Section 232 for national security-related tariffs and Section 301 for addressing unfair trade practices, both of which remain legally intact. The Court of International Trade followed up on March 4th by ordering reliquidation of tariff duties in light of the Supreme Court's decision.

The legal landscape around these new tariffs is already becoming contested. A group of 24 U.S. states has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of Trump's newly imposed 10% global tariffs in the first legal challenge to these measures.

In another major ruling, the Supreme Court issued an emergency decision on March 2nd regarding California's student gender nondisclosure policies. The Court vacated the Ninth Circuit's stay of a lower court's injunction, though only as applied to parent plaintiffs. The decision held that parents seeking religious exemptions from California's laws were likely to succeed on the merits of their claims. The Court found that California's gender nondisclosure policies substantially interfere with parents' rights to guide the religious development of their children. While the state argued the policies served student safety and privacy, the Court concluded the state's interest was not compelling enough to override parental rights and suggested a narrower policy allowing religious exemptions would be appropriate.

Additionally, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case on artificial intelligence and authorship rights, denying Dr. Stephen Thaler's petition regarding whether artificial intelligence could be listed as an inventor on patent applications. This leaves the human authorship requirement for patents intact.

These rulings represent substantial shifts in federal authority, parental rights, and trademark law that will have ripple effects across trade policy, education, and intellectual property law for months to come.

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