Trump tariffs case could head to Supreme Court as soon as Friday

BBC News

3 days ago

The Trump administration has said it will take its tariffs case to the Supreme Court Friday, unless an order that struck down many of President Donald Trump's new import taxes is put on hold. In a filing on Thursday, lawyers for the White House asked the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to block that ruling from going into effect.That response came as a second court ruled that Trump had overstepped his power in imposing the tariffs. The decisions, victories for small businesses and states that have challenged the measures, took aim at policies at the heart of Trump's economic and international agendas.
They drew fury from the Trump administration, which said the rulings are examples of judicial overreach. In its appeal, the Trump administration said the decision issued Wednesday by a lower trade court had improperly second-guessed the president and threatened to unravel months of hard-fought negotiations."The political branches, not courts, make foreign policy and chart economic policy," it said in the filing. "Absent at least interim relief from this Court, the United States plans to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court tomorrow to avoid the irreparable national-security and economic harms at stake."
The eruption of the legal battle raised new questions about the fate of the tariffs, which have rattled the global economy since the White House started threatening the measures earlier this year. In February, Trump ordered tariffs on goods from China, Mexico and Canada, saying the move was intended to help address a fentanyl crisis. Then last month, he unveiled a blanket 10% tariff on goods from most countries around the world, with higher duties on products from certain trade partners, including the European Union and China, that it called "bad actors".The White House has since suspended parts of many of those orders, while it pursues trade negotiations.
'Power grab'
To impose the tariffs in question, Trump using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law more typically applied in cases of trade sanctions, such as those on Iran. Those challenging the case said the law did not grant him such sweeping power over trade and tax policy, traditionally the responsibility of Congress.It put a spotlight on questions of the limit of presidential power, which Trump has repeatedly tested since re-entering office in January.Lawyer Ilya Somin, who helped work on the case brought by businesses before the trade court, said he was "guardedly optimistic" that the ruling would be upheld on appeal, noting that the trade court order came from justices appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents, including one by Trump himself. "It's not normal for the president of the United States to make such an enormous power grab and start the biggest trade war since the Great Depression," he said.But Terry Haines, founder of the Pangaea Policy, which advises firms on Washington policies, said he thought the decision may not ultimately make a difference once higher courts take the case. "All these things are going to be litigated through and the president is probably going to be given the benefit of the doubt," he said.
Business owners, while expressing relief, said they did not yet feel like the situation was resolved. "I was incredibly happy and relieved but I'm also still very cautious," said Kara Dyer, the owner of Boston-based Story Time Toys, which makes toys in China and imports them to the US for sale."It's just been so chaotic and so impossible to plan as a business," she said. "I want this to work its way through our court system so we have a little bit more certainty about what tariffs will be in the future."
Analysts at Goldman Sachs and other firms said Trump was likely to look for other ways to justify tariffs, if the administration loses this case. However the process plays out, Dmitry Grozoubinski, a former trade negotiator who represented Australia at the World Trade Organization, said the decision would make it more difficult for the White House to suddenly impose tariffs, weakening Trump's ability to use the duties for leverage over other countries."It will be a lot harder for him to raise tariffs in the future," he said. "This was ultimately a negotiation in which President Trump was threatening other countries with a big stick and that stick just got considerably more ephemeral."With reporting from the BBC's World Business Report and Opening Bell.