States and small business owners plan to tell an appeals court Thursday that President Donald Trump has overstepped his tariff authority.
U.S. Attorneys, representing Trump, are expected to argue that the president is within his authority during oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit at 10 a.m. EST on Thursday. The court plans to stream audio of the arguments on YouTube.
The closely watched case, brought by Liberty Justice Center, could have major financial consequences for businesses and states, which pay the import duties the federal government collects on foreign goods.
Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners on April 2, which he dubbed “Liberation Day” for American trade. Trump later paused those higher tariffs for 90 days while his trade team made deals with other nations. Trump has recently announced multiple trade deals based on his tariff authority. Trump is using that authority to rebalance global trade and give U.S. companies an advantage at home.
The states and businesses challenged Trump’s tariff authority in May. Later that month, the three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of International Trade unanimously ruled that Congress did not give the president tariff authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. The ruling voided Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs and struck down other tariffs Trump issued under the IEEPA.
The administration appealed to the Federal Circuit, which ruled that Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs could remain in place while the legal challenge continued. That court will hear oral arguments on Thursday, but a decision could still be several weeks away, said Brent Skorup, a legal fellow in the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies.
“Because the President’s involved, because it’s a major economic policy, I would expect a pretty quick ruling, probably within a matter of weeks,” Skorup told The Center Square.
Trump’s tariff authority underpins many of his domestic and foreign policy actions, including trade talks with nations around the world.
After the Court of International Trade ruling in late May, the administration told the Federal Circuit that the tariffs needed to stay in place. A Department of Justice lawyer put it bluntly: An injunction against the tariffs “would completely kneecap the president” while his administration works to make trade deals.
Trump’s attorneys have vowed to appeal the case to the Supreme Court if the federal appeals court doesn’t rule in their favor.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation, filed a friend-of-the-court brief alongside the Consumer Technology Association. The brief warned the federal appeals court that stakes were high in the legal battle over tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“The economic and political consequences of ratifying the President’s broad interpretation of IEEPA are profound and far-reaching, especially for American businesses,” the attorneys wrote. “If the President’s IEEPA tariffs remain in force, American businesses – large and small – will be irreparably harmed.”
Attorneys for the business group noted that the 1977 IEEPA doesn’t mention tariffs.
“The statute does not even mention ‘tariffs’ or any other type of ‘duty.’ Nor does IEEPA silently empower the president to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited size, scope, and duration,” they wrote.
In a friend-of-the-court brief, the America First Policy Institute wrote that a key law wasn’t considered in a previous court decision that found that Trump didn’t have unilateral authority to impose tariffs.
“The stakes of this case are enormous,” attorneys for the group wrote. “If allowed to stand, the ruling below threatens to eviscerate the foreign policy of the president of the United States and to deprive America of hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. Before the judiciary renders a decision so consequential, it is surely essential that all relevant law be fully considered. That did not happen here.”
Attorney Jed Rubenfeld, on behalf of America First, said “the single most relevant federal statute was not considered at all.” He said the Tariff Act of 1930 expressly authorizes Trump’s tariffs.
