President Donald Trump attacked six Supreme Court justices Friday after they struck down his global tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law. Trump directed particular criticism at Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, both appointed by him, saying their votes represented “an embarrassment to their families.”

“The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for the country,” Trump said in the White House briefing room several hours after the court issued its decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts.

The ruling represents a limit on executive power invoked under emergency authorities. It also shows that justices appointed by a president do not automatically align with that president on major policy questions.

Trump said he had expected the three Democratic appointees on the court to oppose him. “But you can’t knock their loyalty,” he said. “It’s one thing you can do with some of our people.”

Vice President JD Vance echoed the president’s criticism, writing on X, “This is lawlessness from the Court, plain and simple.”

Legal opposition to the tariffs crossed political lines. A key challenge came from the libertarian-leaning Liberty Justice Center and from pro-business groups like the Chamber of Commerce.

A Mixed Court Record

Trump’s relationship with the Supreme Court has been marked by major victories interspersed with defeats. He won a significant victory in 2024 when the court ruled that he held presidential immunity from prosecution over efforts to undo his 2020 election loss. In the first year of his second term, he won repeated emergency appeals that allowed him to implement major aspects of his immigration crackdown.

Expert Pushback

Ed Whelan, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a former law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, said Trump had crossed a line in his attacks. “It’s entirely fine for a president to criticize a Supreme Court ruling that goes against him,” Whelan wrote. “But it’s demagogic for President Trump to contend that the justices who voted against him did so because of lack of courage.”

A Long History of Presidential Discontent

Presidential criticism of the Supreme Court has a long history. President Thomas Jefferson criticized the court’s Marbury v. Madison decision, which established judicial review of congressional and executive action. President Franklin Roosevelt, frustrated with decisions he believed blunted parts of the New Deal, talked about older justices as infirm and sought to expand the court — a failed effort.

Following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told friends that appointing Chief Justice Earl Warren was his biggest mistake, according to biographer Stephen E. Ambrose.

President Theodore Roosevelt once allegedly said of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, wounded in action during the Civil War, that he “could carve out of a banana a judge with more backbone.”

These historical remarks, however, were made in private. Trump’s criticism occurred at a livestreamed White House briefing.

Trump and some members of the court, dressed in their black robes, are likely to be in the same room Tuesday when Trump delivers his State of the Union address.

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