WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, which have caused mass disruption for Minnesota businesses, farmers and consumers.

The state’s top Democrats were quick to praise the 6-3 ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, who reprimanded the president for overstepping his executive power.

“Today, the Supreme Court finally affirmed what I have been saying for a year: President Trump’s reckless tariffs — which are costing families, farmers and small businesses — are illegal,” said Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic senator from Minnesota and a candidate for governor.

The Supreme Court’s ruling is a setback for Trump’s signature economy levers in his first year back in the White House, but could signal relief among American businesses — including Minnesota farmers and manufacturers — who had been bearing the brunt of what ultimately culminated into a trade war through retaliatory dues.

But there are still a lot of questions on what the ruling will mean in practical terms from if or how companies can get the tariffs back, to costs going forward and if it could disrupt supply chains once again.

Trump by Friday afternoon said his administration would go back to the drawing board and issue new tariffs. He said one law allows him to institute 10% global tariffs. Another, used by previous presidents, allows for trade investigations that result in tariffs as a consequence.

“While I am sure they did not mean to do so,” Trump said, “the Supreme Court’s decision made the president’s ability to regulate trade and impose tariffs more powerful and more crystal clear, rather than less.”

Rep. Pete Stauber, a Republican representing northeastern Minnesota, said in a statement that he’d seen Trump’s tariffs, especially those on steel and aluminum, aid the Iron Range and the rest of his congressional district.

“For too long, America has been saddled with unfair trade deals that ship jobs overseas and undercut our workers,” Stauber said. He did not directly address the court’s opinion.

Trump asserted the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) gave him authority to institute the tariffs. But Roberts in the ruling said the justification does not hold up.

“The President asserts the independent power to impose tariffs on imports from any court, of any product, at any rate, for any amount of time,” Roberts wrote in the opinion. “Those words cannot bear such weight.”

Rep. Angie Craig, a Democrat who represents both suburban and rural areas across southern Minnesota and is the ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee, said Trump’s tariffs were “illegal” and the decision would bring relief for farmers, small businesses and consumers.

“Turns out there are limits on his power,” Craig said, in a post to the social media network X.

Klobuchar, who attended the oral argument in the case, said in a statement: “With today’s decision, it is clear that Congress — not the president — has the power to impose tariffs. We must reassert this authority and stand up for American workers, businesses, and consumers.”

Beth Benike became one the faces on the price of tariffs for small businesses across the nation. She said her reaction on the Supreme Court’s ruling was “instant tears of happiness.”

The owner of infant mat maker Busy Baby, a small business in Oronoco, Minn., she stood outside the Supreme Court in early November for the tariff case’s oral arguments. She estimated she’s paid about $50,000 on tariffs that the court has now struck down.

“I feel like it’s a thousand-pound weight come off my chest,” Benike said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said the GOP-controlled Congress and the White House “will determine the best path forward in the coming weeks.”

The New York Federal Reserve earlier this month said 90% of the tariff burden fell on U.S. companies and consumers, not entities in the exporting country. The average tariff rate increased from 2.6% to 13%.

Dave Townsend, a partner in Dorsey & Whitney’s International Trade Group, noted in a statement that the U.S. has collected between $130 billion and $150 billion in tariffs that have now been declared illegal.

“It is hard to overstate the vast scale of these IEEPA tariffs as they touch virtually every industry in one way or another,” Townsend said.

Polaris said earlier this month that came to $200 million for the Medina-based powersports company. Medtronic, run out of Fridley, said earlier this week the tariffs in current form would have cost $185 million this year.

These costs have contributed to price increases for consumers and cost-cutting operations at corporations and have caused upheaval in supply routes.

Polaris CEO Mike Speetzen said in an earnings call earlier this month that the tariffs represented “the most significant challenge we have seen since the pandemic.”

Speetzen also said if the Supreme Court ruled against Trump, “obviously, the team’s got a plan of action, because there’s a lot of complexity.”

Trump has said tariffs were needed because of a widening trade deficit and the need to build manufacturing in the U.S. He has widely used them as a tool in his foreign policy.

But in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court case, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said: “The vast majority of economists agree that tariffs reduce economic welfare. Therefore, the impact of terminating these tariffs would not be ‘catastrophic’ and ‘ruinous,’ as the government alleges, but instead would improve our country’s economic well-being and prosperity.”

In Minnesota, a uniquely robust relationship with Canada has been harmed by the trade acrimony, said Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat representing St. Paul and surrounding suburbs.

Last April, chief executives from top retailers, including Minneapolis-based Target, met with Trump to discuss the tariffs’ impacts. Then-CEO Brian Cornell conceded last spring that tariffs led to higher prices, as roughly 30% of the retail giant’s private-label items are sourced from China. Richfield-based Best Buy similarly imports about 30% of its products from China.

Farmers, particularly for Minnesota’s $9 billion soybean economy, are particularly dependent on trade with China. Roughly 1 out of 3 or 4 rows of soybeans — until this past year — had ended up being sent on trains to the West Coast and then shipped overseas to China. But China turned toward other countries as Trump set higher tariffs.

Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish said Friday’s ruling was “a first step in restoring certainty in our agricultural economy and reopening markets for farmers.”

On Friday, Benike said her husband — who is a corn and soybean farmer in southeastern Minnesota — had just attended an oats workshop and was contracting for peas and possible sweet corn to begin to find new crops for his fields.

“We’ve been taking it at both ends,” Benike said.

Benike said she is sober about the challenges ahead.

The tariff policies resulted in layoffs at her company. Now, she needs to “dig” herself out of debt accumulated when she had to abandon container ships of products in China — which she manufactures entirely in the Asian country due to logistical constraints in the U.S.

“There’s still a battle here,” Benike said. “But it’s renewed my faith in the checks and balances of our government.”

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Emma Nelson, Patrick Kennedy, Joe Carlson and Catherine Roberts of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.

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