Court of International Trade

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the Court of International Trade’s finding that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative had the authority to drastically increase tariffs on China under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, handing a loss to thousands of importers who had claimed the first Trump administration improperly imposed the levies on $320 billion worth of Chinese goods. CIT in March 2023 ruled that USTR was within its statutory authority to expand Section 301...

Congress’s failure to pass bills that would repeal President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs or narrow the statute they are based on undermines challengers’ claims that he is improperly wielding power the Constitution reserves to the legislature, supporters of the administration told the Supreme Court in newly filed briefs. “[I]f there actually was a presidential usurpation of a power that the Congress never delegated, one would expect that Congress would, by joint resolution, terminate the state of emergency...

The Justice Department’s opening brief to the Supreme Court defending President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs attacked previous decisions that would scrap them as “textually incoherent” and legally “incorrect,” urging the justices to declare that IEEPA “plainly” gives the executive broad discretion on tariffs. “The power to ‘regulate importation’ plainly encompasses the power to impose tariffs,” reads DOJ’s brief , filed late on Sept. 19 in the Supreme Court’s combined IEEPA suit known as Learning Resources, et al.,...

The Supreme Court will hold oral argument in the combined legal challenges to President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs the morning of Nov. 5, solidifying its earlier plan to hear the suits sometime in the first week of November. The court on Sept. 18 posted a new hearing calendar for November showing the two consolidated tariff cases -- known as Learning Resources v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections -- as the only ones the justices will hear...

Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Wednesday heard argument in a suit claiming that President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs infringe on tribal rights, signaling that they will continue reviewing that relatively narrow issue even as the Supreme Court hears broader challenges to the duties this fall. Yet plaintiffs in the suit, known as Webber, et al., v. Department of Homeland Security, are pushing to accelerate that process even more, in hopes...

Tribal citizens in Montana who have sued to stop President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs are asking to intervene in just-launched Supreme Court litigation over the duties, saying that leaving them out would mean the high court’s eventual decision will not resolve whether the tariffs violate tribal commerce rights. “The existing parties, primarily focused on the commercial aspects of the tariffs, cannot adequately represent the sovereign, treaty-based, and Indian Commerce Clause interests” affecting tribes, reads a motion filed...

The Supreme Court will hear challenges to President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs this fall, with briefing to start next week and oral argument in early November – a greatly accelerated schedule that could lead to a decision before the end of the year. The court granted review of the litigation in an order released late on Sept. 9 , a day earlier than the Justice Department had asked for when it sought expedited review of the IEEPA...