The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are illegal, but allowed the tariffs to remain in place until October 14 to give the Trump administration over a month to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, reports Reuters:
Trump justified both sets of tariffs – as well as more recent tariffs – under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. IEEPA gives the president the power to address “unusual and extraordinary” threats during national emergencies.
“It seems unlikely that Congress intended, in enacting IEEPA, to depart from its past practice and grant the President unlimited authority to impose tariffs,” the ruling said. “The statute neither mentions tariffs (or any of its synonyms) nor has procedural safeguards that contain clear limits on the President’s power to impose tariffs.”
….The appeals court ruled on two cases, one brought by five small U.S. businesses and the other by 12 Democratic-led U.S. states, which argued that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs.
The Constitution grants Congress, not the president, the authority to issue taxes and tariffs, and any delegation of that authority must be both explicit and limited, according to the lawsuits.
(Source: Reuters)