Trump vs. SCOTUS: Presidential feud with justices plays backdrop to State of the Union

WASHINGTON (CN) — As President Donald Trump gears up to give his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night, questions swirl about whether the justices of the Supreme Court will face his ire just days after he called the high court a “disgrace to our nation.”

Members of the high court typically attend the annual State of the Union, where they sit just feet from the president during his remarks. But Tuesday’s speech comes at a particularly contentious moment between Trump and the Supreme Court, which ruled last week that his administration could not claim emergency powers to set punishing import tariffs without congressional approval.

Trump has not been shy in his criticism of the justices who authored the court’s majority opinion, calling them a “disgrace” during a news conference Friday and arguing that the “ridiculous” 6-3 decision did not completely annul his power to unilaterally impose tariffs on foreign countries.

“They wrote this terrible, defective decision — totally defective,” said the president. “It’s almost like it’s not written by smart people.”

The administration’s aggressive tariff regime has been a centerpiece of Trump’s economic policy, and international trade is sure to come up during what the president has promised will be an extensive State of the Union address. But it’s unclear whether the justices will be forced Tuesday night to endure an in-person upbraiding for last week’s ruling. The president has quipped that the high court jurists are “barely invited” to his speech to Congress.

Asked by Courthouse News whether he expected Trump to address the justices directly, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he wasn’t aware of the “content” of the president’s speech but that he expected Trump’s remarks to be a “positive, affirmative statement” about the accomplishments of his White House.

“The president was of course frustrated by the Supreme Court decision, but we’re sorting out the fallout from that and what it means for us,” the top House Republican said during a news conference Tuesday morning. “I think tonight’s going to be a great celebration of America and all that we’ve achieved together, so we’re looking forward to that.”

Though the justices traditionally attend the State of the Union as silent observers, not all the high court’s nine members make a point of traveling to the Capitol to hear the president speak. Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, two of the court’s three dissenting votes in the tariff case, have refused to attend in the past.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Supreme Court had yet to announce which justices would attend the State of the Union.

The high court’s tariff ruling marked a major defeat for the Trump administration, which has touted what it’s framed as a string of victories in cases challenging its sweeping executive agenda. But the president has vowed to continue his effort to clamp down on foreign trade using alternative means.

In its decision Friday, the court said the White House could not leverage the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs without congressional involvement. The administration last spring declared a national emergency to implement a slate of import duties, citing what it called a “large and persistent” U.S. trade deficit.

Trump has since claimed that the ruling had “accidentally” given him full license to wage his one-man tariff war using other legal provisions. And over the weekend, the president announced that he would activate Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act to impose 15% global tariffs, replacing the ones struck down by the Supreme Court.

The Section 122 tariffs, however, expire in 150 days without approval from Congress. It’s unclear whether lawmakers will back an effort to renew the president’s latest slate of import duties — or whether the White House will try to sidestep Capitol Hill entirely.

Democrats have already said they will block any effort to extend Trump’s Section 122 tariffs, a move the White House called “pathetic but unsurprising.”

The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has not responded to Trump’s criticism of the tariff ruling. But in a sign that word has gotten back to One First Street, Justice Sonia Sotomayor seemed to suggest during oral arguments Tuesday that the court may have to return to the issue.

The Obama appointee’s comments came in response to Alito, who lamented from the bench that he had felt left out of the tariffs ruling because he and Sotomayor had been the only justices not to author their own opinions.

“Maybe we’ll have a chance here,” Sotomayor quipped.

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