A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump (R) will temporarily be allowed to continue collecting tariffs under an emergency powers law while his appeal of a federal trade court decision striking down these policies is pending.
Judicial rulings on the Trump tariffs over the past 72 hours have gone back and forth and been seemingly as head-spinning as the changes in tariff policies on various countries and trade blocks themselves. Here is the current state of play:
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted an emergency motion filed by the Trump Administration after a three-judge panel ruled Wednesday that President Trump’s invocation of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose a large swatch of tariffs represented an overstep of his authority.
This injunction, however, is only temporary, as the appeals court must now decide whether or not to grant a more permanent stay of the trade court’s ruling as the case continues through the judicial system.
“This is merely a procedural step as the court considers the government’s request for a longer stay pending appeal,” explained Jeffrey Schwab, a lawyer for one of the challengers, in a statement.
Bringing this case against the Trump Administration are a group of small businesses alongside a coalition of several states, including Maine.
The tariffs issued under the IEEPA — more commonly referred to as his “Liberation Day” tariffs — are currently being challenged in seven different lawsuits, two of which were combined by the trade court that issued the injunction against the Administration Wednesday.
It is expected that this case will ultimately be appealed all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
In issuing his “Liberation Day” tariffs, Trump declared that he had the authority to act without Congressional approval, as he contended that the country’s longstanding trade deficits constituted “a national emergency.”
“The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the President’s use of tariffs as leverage,” the three-judge panel said in its ruling Wednesday. “That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it.”
This ruling also applied to the tariffs Trump imposed separately upon Canada, Mexico, and China.
“The Supreme Court must put an end to this,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday afternoon. “These judges are threatening to undermine the credibility of the United States on the world stage.”
The IEEPA was originally enacted in 1977 and gives the president board authority to regulate economic transactions under a declared emergency.
This law also gives Congress the authority to terminate a president’s emergency declaration, but in light of a landmark Supreme Court ruling, they are only able to do so by adopting a joint resolution.
Until 2023, however, Congress had never attempted to terminate a president’s emergency declaration under the IEEPA. In fact, a report from the Congressional Research Service indicates that lawmakers had been known to ask the president to impose more sanctions under the Act, not less.
As a result of Thursday’s appeals court ruling, the Trump Administrations’ tariffs will remain in effect for the time being, but a more permanent decision from the court regarding this stay is still to come.
“Trade in these cases are temporarily stayed until further notice while this court considers the motions papers,” the order stated.
Regardless of whether or not they ultimately prevail in this particular case, Trump Administration officials have indicated that there are other means by which the President’s intended trade policy can and will be pursued.
“Even if we lose, we will do it another way,” trade advisor Peter Navarro told reporters at the White House on Thursday afternoon.
The Trump Administration must respond to the appeals court’s ruling by June 9, and the plaintiffs in the case must submit their response by June 5.
