When the Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a political gift on Feb. 20, the president did what he almost always does with gifts: threw it back.

The court’s 6-3 ruling in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump was, on its surface, a stinging legal rebuke. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the 1977 emergency statute Trump had used as the legal foundation for his sweeping global tariffs, does not authorize the president to impose tariffs.