President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff powers and recent trade deals could soon run into a legal buzzsaw.
A federal appeals court is set to hear oral arguments next week in a high-profile lawsuit challenging Trump’s stated authority to effectively slap tariffs at any level on any country at any time, so long as he deems them necessary to address a national emergency.
The Trump administration says that that expansive tariff power derives from the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA.
The bulk of Trump’s biggest tariffs — including his fentanyl-related duties on Canada, Mexico and China, and the worldwide “reciprocal” tariffs he first unveiled in early April — rest on his invocation of that law.
The U.S. Court of International Trade struck those tariffs down in late May, ruling that Trump exceeded his authority under IEEPA.
