By David J. Lynch, Cat Zakrzewski — The Court of International Trade ruled Wednesday that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority in imposing tariffs on all imported goods, calling an immediate halt to his signature trade war policy.
“The challenged Tariff Orders will be vacated and their operation permanently enjoined,” a three-judge panel ruled.
Even before the decision, the White House vowed to appeal an unfavorable decision.
The decision in a pair of lawsuits filed last month against the government applies to the 10 percent tariffs Trump imposed on all foreign products as well as the much higher levies applied to goods from several dozen nations. The president involved a 1977 law that granted him emergency powers over the economy, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act or IEEPA.
“He took a big gamble doing this under emergency powers. That gamble lost,” said Peter Harrell, a former Biden administration attorney who helped draft a brief from 148 House members supporting a lawsuit by 12 states.
The states, all with Democratic governors, said they suffered “direct financial harm” from the tariffs, which made imported goods used to provide public services more expensive.
The court ruling also applied to a case filed by five owner-operated businesses that said they had been harmed by the president’s inappropriate use of executive power. The businesses – V.O.S. Selections, Genova Pipe, MicroKits, FishUSA, and Terry Cycling – cited problems with sourcing and cash flow in the wake of the president’s April tariffs.
That case was filed by the Liberty Justice Center, a nonpartisan organization in Austin.
The court noted that IEEPA says the president may only use his emergency powers “to deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat with respect to which a national emergency has been declared.”
Trump pointed to the merchandise trade deficit that the United States has run each year since 1975 as the “emergency” justifying his sweeping tariffs.
Wednesday’s ruling also applies to other tariffs that the president imposed on Mexico and Canada, citing an emergency over illegal migration and drug trafficking, and China for its alleged role in facilitating production of the opioid fentanyl.
Shortly after the decision was made public, the White House responded.
“Foreign countries’ nonreciprocal treatment of the Unites States has fueled America’s historic and persistent trade deficits. These deficits have created a national emergency that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base – facts that the court did not dispute. It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency. President Trump pledged to put America First, and the Administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American Greatness,” said Kush Desai, a White House spokesman.
No other president has used IEEPA to impose tariffs and Trump’s novel use of the authority sparked a wave of litigation. As small businesses from across the country lined up to sue, multinational corporations such as Apple opted to seek relief from the White House through private meetings and phone calls.
Legal experts have told The Post that the lawsuits are likely to succeed if they make it to the Supreme Court. Tim Meyer, the co-director of the Center for International and Comparative Law at Duke University Law School, said the president is “overwriting” legislation that Congress passed to levy tariffs.
“When the White House is itself touting this as the largest tax increase in American history, I think that’s going to make the justices sit back and think the Constitution gives Congress and Congress alone the authority to levy duties, impose tariffs and to regulate foreign commerce,” said Meyer, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, a Trump nominee, when he served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
Right after Trump raised U.S. import taxes to their highest level in more than a century, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonprofit that has previously received financial support from conservative donor Charles Koch’s foundation, also filed a lawsuit in federal court in Florida challenging Trump’s authority.
That case, on behalf of Simplified, a planner company that manufactures its products in China, was transferred to the trade court in New York last week. But as he did so, Judge T. Kent Wetherell II said he agreed with the federal government’s argument that IEEPA provides the president authority to issue such tariffs.
