{"id":9975,"date":"2025-05-28T23:59:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T23:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=9975"},"modified":"2025-05-28T23:59:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T23:59:39","slug":"federal-court-says-trump-doesnt-have-the-power-to-impose-tariffs-unilaterally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=9975","title":{"rendered":"Federal court says Trump doesn’t have the power to impose tariffs unilaterally"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a sweeping opinion, a three-judge panel of the New York-based Court of International Trade stuck down President Donald Trump\u2019s global tariffs as \u201ccontrary to law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judges found that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — which Trump used to enact his tariffs — does not give him the \u201cunlimited\u201d power to levy tariffs like the president has in recent months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President\u2019s assertion of tariff-making authority in the instant case, unbounded as it is by any limitation in duration or scope, exceeds any tariff authority delegated to the President under IEEPA. The Worldwide and Retaliatory tariffs are thus ultra vires and contrary to law,\u201d the judges wrote.<\/p>\n

According to the judges, Congress, not the president, has the authority to impose tariffs under most circumstances, and Trump\u2019s tariffs do not meet the limited condition of an \u201cunusual and extraordinary threat\u201d that would allow him to act alone.<\/p>\n

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President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing in ceremony for interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro in the Oval Office of the White House, May 28, 2025 in Washington.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cBecause of the Constitution\u2019s express allocation of the tariff power to Congress, we do not read IEEPA to delegate an unbounded tariff authority to the President. We instead read IEEPA\u2019s provisions to impose meaningful limits on any such authority it confers,\u201d the ruling said.<\/p>\n

The Court of International Trade issued the decision across two cases — one filed by a group of small businesses and another filed by 12 Democratic attorneys general.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration can appeal the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and then the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Since Trump announced sweeping tariffs<\/a> on more than 50 countries in April, his administration has faced half a dozen lawsuits challenging the president’s ability to impose tariffs without the approval of Congress.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the small businesses alleged that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act<\/a> — which Trump invoked to impose the tariffs — does not give the president the right to issue “across-the-board worldwide tariffs,” and that Trump’s justification for the tariffs was invalid.<\/p>\n

“His claimed emergency is a figment of his own imagination,” the lawsuit said. “Trade deficits, which have persisted for decades without causing economic harm, are not an emergency.”<\/p>\n

During a hearing earlier this month, a group of three judges — who were appointed by presidents Obama, Trump and Reagan — pushed a lawyer for the small businesses to provide a legal basis to override the tariffs. While a different court in the 1970s determined that the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 — the law that preceded the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — gave the president the right to impose tariffs, no court has weighed whether the president can impose tariffs unilaterally under the IEEPA.<\/p>\n

During a May 13 hearing<\/a>, Jeffrey Schwab, a lawyer from the conservative Liberty Justice Center representing the plaintiffs, argued that Trump’s purported emergency to justify the tariffs is far short of what is required under the law.<\/p>\n

“I’m asking this court to be an umpire and call a strike; you’re asking me, well, where’s the strike zone? Is it at the knees or slightly below the knees?” Schwab argued. “I’m saying it’s a wild pitch and it’s on the other side of the batter and hits the backstop, so we don’t need to debate that.”<\/p>\n

The ruling marks the first time a federal court has issued a ruling on the legality of Trump’s tariffs. In May, a federal judge in Florida nominated by Trump suggested the president has the authority to unilaterally impose tariffs, but opted to transfer the case<\/a> to the Court of International Trade.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a sweeping opinion, a three-judge panel of the New York-based Court of International Trade stuck down President Donald Trump\u2019s global tariffs as \u201ccontrary to law.\u201d The judges found that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — which Trump used to enact his tariffs — does not give him the \u201cunlimited\u201d power to levy tariffs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9977,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9975\/revisions\/9977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}