Court strikes down most of Trump's tariffs, ruling them illegal

The IbanezerScrooge · May 29, 2025

Court strikes down most of Trump's tariffs, ruling them illegal

A federal court on Wednesday blocked most of the sweeping tariffs imposed by President Trump.

www.cbsnews.com

A federal court on Wednesday froze most of the sweeping tariffs imposed by President Trump on virtually every foreign nation, ruling the levies exceed the president's legal authority.

The ruling — issued by a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of International Trade — halted the sweeping 10% tariffs Mr. Trump assessed on virtually every U.S. trading partner on "Liberation Day" last month, with higher tariffs threatened for dozens of countries. The court also blocked a separate set of tariffs imposed on China, Mexico and Canada by the Trump administration, which has cited drug trafficking and illegal immigration as its reasoning for the hikes.

Global markets rallied on the news.

The Trump administration has justified the tariffs by citing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, or IEEPA, which gives the president the power to regulate imports during certain emergency situations. But the court on Wednesday rejected the government's interpretation of the law, and said it would be unconstitutional for any law passed by Congress to give the president blanket authority to set tariffs.

"The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder," the judges wrote Wednesday.

I feel like this was the plan all along - break stuff and cause chaos leading to financial ruin, then when that broken stuff gets fixed or the chaos mitigated by Congress\courts\or even CFIC (Convicted Felon In Chief) Trump TACOs causing a rebound, take credit for it like a savior.

and MAGA laps it up.

durangodawood · May 29, 2025

The US Constitution is pretty clear about which branch of govt gets to set tariffs. And this "emergency" declaration is a classic non constitutional power grab, just like they do in what our president calls the ____hole countries.

Should the constitution be amended to give the executive this power? Thats an interesting question.

GoldenBoy89 · May 29, 2025

Those durn liberal activist judges!

Desk trauma · May 29, 2025

We’re in the “nice ruling, what are you going to do about it?” era of executive power so this may be for naught.

Hans Blaster · May 29, 2025

Desk trauma said:
We’re in the “nice ruling, what are you going to do about it?” era of executive power so this may be for naught.

For now they have given notice of their intent to appeal to the Federal Circuit.

Fun fact about the Federal Circuit (the only non-territorial appeals court Circuit), their courthouse is on the same "block" as the White House (bounded by the same public streets) on the east edge of Lafayette Park.

sanderabeer · May 29, 2025

Unanimous decision. The judges are Gary Katzmann (Obama appointee), Jane Restani (Reagan appointee), and Timothy Reif (Trump appointee). So the whole "liberal activist judges" line ain't gonna work for MAGA.

Aryeh Jay · May 29, 2025

sanderabeer said:
Unanimous decision. The judges are Gary Katzmann (Obama appointee), Jane Restani (Reagan appointee), and Timothy Reif (Trump appointee). So the whole "liberal activist judges" line ain't gonna work for MAGA.

Ha! Deep State activist judges who were replaced during the Biden administration by shape shifting lizard aliens.

Desk trauma · May 29, 2025

sanderabeer said:
Unanimous decision. The judges are Gary Katzmann (Obama appointee), Jane Restani (Reagan appointee), and Timothy Reif (Trump appointee). So the whole "liberal activist judges" line ain't gonna work for MAGA.

Why not? Things don’t need a basis in fact to be accepted.

wing2000 · May 29, 2025

Trump has 10 days to implement the court's order (or file an appeal for a stay).

Desk trauma · May 29, 2025

wing2000 said:
Trump has 10 days to implement the court's order (or file an appeal for a stay).

…or ignore it and see what happens.

DaisyDay · May 29, 2025

I think I"ll celebrate this ruling and get some tacos for lunch.

The IbanezerScrooge · May 29, 2025

sanderabeer said:
Unanimous decision. The judges are Gary Katzmann (Obama appointee), Jane Restani (Reagan appointee), and Timothy Reif (Trump appointee). So the whole "liberal activist judges" line ain't gonna work for MAGA.

Reagan?? Yikes! Term Limits, anyone?

DaisyDay · May 29, 2025

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/29/blocked-trump-tariffs-trade-court-appeal.html

A federal appeals court on Thursday granted the Trump administration’s request to temporarily pause a lower-court ruling that struck down most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The Trump administration had earlier told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that it would seek “emergency relief” from the Supreme Court as soon as Friday if the tariff ruling was not quickly put on pause.

The judgment issued Wednesday night by the U.S. Court of International Trade is “temporarily stayed until further notice while this court considers the motions papers,” the appeals court said in its order.

They're back on again!

Desk trauma · May 29, 2025

Oi vey.

Richard T · May 29, 2025

durangodawood said:
The US Constitution is pretty clear about which branch of govt gets to set tariffs. And this "emergency" declaration is a classic non constitutional power grab, just like they do in what our president calls the ____hole countries.

Should the constitution be amended to give the executive this power? Thats an interesting question.

Congress has the power to set tariffs and taxes. They passed some laws though that give some discretion to the executive branch. Here is a good article describing this. Can Presidents Set Tariffs Alone? - U.S. Constitution.net

I think that even if Trump gets his way on tariffs, that Congress is going to take some of this discretion back. There is no where near the votes for an amendment to give Trump more powers over tariffs. Most support tariffs for security reasons or even human rights violations, but tariffs for basic stuff like clothing from Thailand are just a regressive tax on lower and middle class America.
I fear this battle on tariffs will continue throughout Trump's term. Businesses need stability. Who can plan when the tariff rate and court judgments go back and forth? Trump landed a stay on his tariffs for now, but likely they will be overturned and most are saying he can use other powers to basically work around this constitutional impediment. Biden did the same thing with student loans. He wanted more of a blanket forgiveness but ended up with a narrower focus that got part of what he wanted. So Trump will likely have the same outcome, except tariffs are far more reaching than just student loans.

I will say too that how could any Senator vote for the Big Beautiful Bill if they were unsure of tariff revenue? It raises the debt as is, and that is with some projected tariff revenue.

Bradskii · May 29, 2025

The IbanezerScrooge said:
Reagan?? Yikes! Term Limits, anyone?

I tend to agree. Maybe age limits as well. I'll just note that she's a year younger than Trump...

Gene2memE · May 29, 2025

sanderabeer said:
Unanimous decision. The judges are Gary Katzmann (Obama appointee), Jane Restani (Reagan appointee), and Timothy Reif (Trump appointee). So the whole "liberal activist judges" line ain't gonna work for MAGA.

They tried it anyway. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt:

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.

Because if you're a judicial activist, where you want to end up is *checks notes* the Court of International Trade.

DaisyDay · May 29, 2025

Richard T said:
Congress has the power to set tariffs and taxes. They passed some laws though that give some discretion to the executive branch. Here is a good article describing this. Can Presidents Set Tariffs Alone? - U.S. Constitution.net

I think that even if Trump gets his way on tariffs, that Congress is going to take some of this discretion back. There is no where near the votes for an amendment to give Trump more powers over tariffs. Most support tariffs for security reasons or even human rights violations, but tariffs for basic stuff like clothing from Thailand are just a regressive tax on lower and middle class America.
I fear this battle on tariffs will continue throughout Trump's term. Businesses need stability. Who can plan when the tariff rate and court judgments go back and forth? Trump landed a stay on his tariffs for now, but likely they will be overturned and most are saying he can use other powers to basically work around this constitutional impediment. Biden did the same thing with student loans. He wanted more of a blanket forgiveness but ended up with a narrower focus that got part of what he wanted. So Trump will likely have the same outcome, except tariffs are far more reaching than just student loans.

I will say too that how could any Senator vote for the Big Beautiful Bill if they were unsure of tariff revenue? It raises the debt as is, and that is with some projected tariff revenue.

Wait - did anyone other than Donald J Trump himself seriously think that tariffs were going to be real revenue to replace income taxes?

Bradskii · May 29, 2025

Richard T said:
Businesses need stability. Who can plan when the tariff rate and court judgments go back and forth?

Exactly right. Trump keeps rambling on about bringing manufacturing back to the US. It's something of a pipe dream in any case, but what manufacturer is going to build a factory to build Widgets if they don't know how much they'll have to a pay on the tariffs on the imported materials and parts and don't know if their export market is going to be hit with reciprocal tariffs?

Anyone who had an agenda to hit US manufacturing hard would be doing exactly what Trump is doing now.

Hans Blaster · May 29, 2025

The IbanezerScrooge said:
Reagan?? Yikes! Term Limits, anyone?

She did retire 15 years ago. She is serving as a "Senior Judge".

Court strikes down most of Trump's tariffs, ruling them illegal

I can't believe what I'm hearing...

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Replaced by a robot, just like Biden.

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Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

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