Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq rebound as ADP jobs jump, Supreme Court questions Trump tariff power

Several of the Supreme Court’s conservative-leaning justices questioned a US government lawyer over President Trump’s authority to impose tariffs on trading partners, casting early doubt over their future.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, drew the most notice for his line of questioning to US Solicitor General D. John Sauer. Gorsuch posed a hypothetical in the case of a theoretical future Democratic president.

“Could the president impose a 50% tariff on gas-powered cars and auto parts to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat from abroad of climate change?” Gorsuch asked.

Sauer responded that it was “very likely.”

Gorsuch also questioned Sauer over the president’s ultimate authority and when Congress could delegate it to the executive.

“What would prohibit Congress from just abdicating all responsibility to regulate foreign commerce — for that matter, declare war — to the president?” he asked.

Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh — the latter two of whom were appointed by Trump — also at times posed skeptical questions. Kavanaugh asked why no president before Trump had invoked this authority, while Barrett questioned the across-the-board nature of the tariffs.

Prediction markets have grown much more bearish on the odds of Trump prevailing in this case.

Polymarket has odds of the Supreme Court ruling in favor at 23%, down from around 40% before the oral arguments. Odds on Kalshi took a similar dive. On PredictIt, bettors saw about 80-20 odds that the court would “strike down” the tariffs.