Appeals court says tariffs are illegal

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A federal appeals court said Friday that President Donald Trump had misused his authority when he imposed tariffs under an emergency-powers statute, ruling that only Congress has the power to apply such sweeping measures.

However, the judges said the tariffs can stay in place as the case proceeds.

“The core Congressional power to impose taxes such as tariffs is vested exclusively in the legislative branch by the Constitution,” a ruling signed by seven judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said.

“Tariffs are a core Congressional power,” it said.

The ruling affects two sets of tariffs Trump has sought to impose. The first are the country-by-country or “reciprocal” tariffs, which now range in scope from 34% for China to a 10% baseline for the rest of the world. It also affects the 25% tariff Trump imposed on some goods from Canada, China and Mexico for what the Trump administration said was a failure on the part of those countries to curb fentanyl flows.

Friday’s ruling does not affect tariffs implemented under other laws, such as 50% steel and aluminum tariffs on all other worldwide trading partners. Those tariffs were implemented under various sections of the Trade Act of 1974 and the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.

In a post on Truth Social on Friday evening, Trump highlighted that the tariffs would remain in effect while claiming “a Highly Partisan Appeals Court incorrectly said that our Tariffs should be removed.”

“But they know the United States of America will win in the end,” he said. “If these Tariffs ever went away, it would be a total disaster for the Country. It would make us financially weak, and we have to be strong.”

“President Trump lawfully exercised the tariff powers granted to him by Congress to defend our national and economic security from foreign threats,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. “The President’s tariffs remain in effect, and we look forward to ultimate victory on this matter.”

In a dissenting opinion, the four judges who voted against the ruling, who included Kimberly Moore, the court’s chief judge, argued that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) had been appropriately used by Trump in relation to the tariffs.

Adding to the dissent, Circuit Judge Richard Taranto wrote: “We conclude that IEEPA’s authorization of presidential action in this realm is not an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority under the Supreme Court’s decisions, which have upheld broad grants of authority, including tariffing authority, in this foreign-affairs-related area.”

The administration is likely to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is currently composed of six conservative justices and just three liberals. Three of the six conservatives were nominated by Trump.

However, it may also wait until the case is reconsidered by the Court of International Trade, which first took up the case. In its Friday decision, the appeals court said the CIT may have violated a recent Supreme Court ruling limiting judges’ ability to impose so-called universal injunctions that reach beyond the scope of a given case.