WASHINGTON – President Trump’s signature plan to impose import taxes on ⁢products coming ⁢from countries around the world ran into sharp skepticism at the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Most of the justices, conservative and liberal, questioned⁤ whether the president acting on his own has the power to ⁢set large ⁢tariffs as⁤ a weapon of international trade.

instead, they voiced the traditional view ⁣that the Constitution gives Congress the power to‍ raise taxes, duties and tariffs.

Trump and his lawyers rely on‍ an emergency ⁢powers act adopted on a voice vote by Congress in 1977. that measure authorizes sanctions and embargoes, but does not mention “tariffs, duties” or other means of revenue-raising.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said he doubted that law could be read so broadly.

The emergency powers law “had ‍never before been‍ used to justify tariffs,” he told D. John‍ Sauer, Trump’s solicitor⁤ general. “No one has argued that it does until this particular⁢ case.”

Congress has authorized tariffs in other laws, he said, but not this one. Yet, it ⁢is “being used for a power to impose tariffs on any product from any country for – in any ⁢amount on any product from any country for – ⁣in any amount for any length of time.”

Moreover, the Constitution says Congress⁤ has the led role on ⁢taxes and tariffs. “the imposition of taxes on Americans …has always been a core power of Congress,” he said.

The⁣ tariffs case heard Wednesday is ⁤the first major challenge to Trump’s presidential power to be heard by the court. It is also a test of whether the court’s conservative⁣ majority is willing to set legal limits on Trump’s executive authority.

Trump has touted these import taxes as crucial to reviving American manufacturing.

But owners of small businesses, farmers and economists are among the critics who say⁣ the on-again, off-again import taxes are disrupting business and damaging the economy.

Two lower courts ruled ⁣for small-business owners and said Trump had exceeded his authority.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal on a ⁣fast-track basis with the aim of ruling in a few months.

In defense of the president and his “Liberation Day” tariffs, Trump’s⁤ lawyers‍ argued these ‍import duties involve the president’s power‍ over foreign affairs. They are “regulatory ⁣tariffs,” not taxes that raise revenue, he said.

Justices sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan disagreed.

“It’s a congressional power, not ⁤a presidential power, to tax,” Sotomayor said. “You want to say tariffs are not taxes, but that’s exactly what they are.”

Imposing