The justices used the doctrine, a judicially created method of reading statutes, to thwart several major Biden programs.

The major questions doctrine requires Congress to use plain and direct language to authorize sweeping economic actions by the executive branch.Credit…Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

The Supreme Court used the “major questions doctrine” to reject much of the Biden administration’s agenda, including its efforts to address climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic and student debt. The court’s commitment to the doctrine will be tested next week when it hears arguments about President Trump’s tariffs program.

The doctrine requires Congress to use plain and direct language to authorize sweeping economic actions by the executive branch. The 1977 law that Mr. Trump is relying on, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, might seem to fail that test, as it does not feature the word “tariffs” or similar terms like “duties,” “customs,” “taxes” or “imposts.”

Nor is there any question that the tariffs will have vast economic consequences, measured in the trillions of dollars. The sums involved are far larger than the roughly $500 billion at issue in President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s student loan forgiveness program, which Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, called “staggering by any measure.”

t seems poised to rule in President Trump’s favor on whether he can fire government officials for no reason, a leading originalist scholar has issued a provocative dissent.