Tariff Ruling Put On Hold While Trump Administration Appeals

A federal appeals court has temporarily put on hold a ruling that voided President Trump’s tariffs while it considers the administration’s challenge to the lower-court decision.

“This Court should immediately stay that judgment, which is rife with legal error and upends President Trump’s efforts to eliminate our exploding trade deficit and reorient the global economy on an equal footing,” the Justice Department wrote.

“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,” they added.

The administration’s urgency underscores the stakes in the legal battle over tariffs for President Trump’s sweeping trade agenda. Since taking office, Trump has wielded tariffs as leverage in hopes of bolstering the U.S. economy and manufacturing base, bringing other countries to the table to negotiate more favorable trade deals and pursuing other national-security policies. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed that in a briefing on Thursday: “There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process. America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president, for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.”

She said the administration would press its challenge as far as it could. “Ultimately, the Supreme Court must put an end to this for the sake of our Constitution and our country,” she said.

Trump has invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to underpin most of his second-term tariffs—from duties on Canada, Mexico and China imposed over fentanyl smuggling to the far-reaching reciprocal tariffs levied in early April on virtually every U.S. trading partner. 

A three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade, a tribunal in New York City, ruled Wednesday that Trump lacked authority under IEEPA to impose the levies.

“The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the President’s use of tariffs as leverage,” wrote the three-judge panel. “That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [IEEPA] does not allow it.”

Appeals from the Court of International Trade are heard by the Federal Circuit, and any further challenges from there are heard by the Supreme Court. In rare cases, the Justice Department has in the past been able to leapfrog intermediate federal appeals courts and take emergency motions straight to the Supreme Court.

Complicating the Trump administration’s efforts to salvage its tariffs, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday joined the Court of International Trade in holding that Trump’s tariffs were unlawful.