We Won Our Tariff Case!
The US Court of International Trade just issued a unanimous ruling in the case against Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs filed by Liberty Justice Center and myself on behalf of five US businesses harmed by the tariffs. The ruling also covers the case filed by twelve states led by Oregon; they, too, have prevailed on all counts. All of Trump’s tariffs adopted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) are invalidated as beyond the scope of executive power, and their implementation blocked by a permanent injunction. In addition to striking down the “Liberation Day” tariffs challenged n our case (what the opinion refers to as the “Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariffs”), , the court also ruled against the fentanyl-related tariffs imposed on Canada, Mexico, and China (which were challenged in the Oregon case). See here for the court’s opinion.
It is worth noting that the panel include judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents, including one (Judge Reif) appointed by Trump, one appointed by Reagan (Judge Restani), and one by Obama (Judge Katzmann).
Here is the court’s summary of its ruling, from its per curiam opinion:
The Constitution assigns Congress the exclusive powers to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,” and to “regulate Commerce with foreign Nations.” U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cls. 1, 3. The question in the two cases before the court is whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (“IEEPA”) delegates these powers to the President in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country he court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder.
From the very beginning, I have contended that the virtually limitless nature of the authority claimed by Trump is a key reason why courts must strike down the tariffs. See, e.g., my Lawfare article, “The Constitutional Case Against Trump’s Trade War.” I am glad to see the CIT judges agreed with our argument on this point!
The court elaborated further on the statutory point:
Underlying the issues in this case is the notion that “the powers properly belonging to oneof the departments ought not to be directly and completely administered by either of the other departments.” Federalist No. 48 (James Madison). Because of the Constitution’s express allocation of the tariff power to Congress, see U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 1, we do not read IEEPA to delegate an unboun
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