A federal appeals court appeared skeptical Thursday of arguments from a Justice Department lawyer defending President Donald Trump’s global tariff regime.
Trump has claimed he has the power to impose a vast array of new tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. His use of that statute is the first time since it became law in 1977 that it has been invoked by a president to impose tariffs on imports from other countries,
Plaintiffs in the case say the IEEPA contains no such tariff-setting authority for a president, and argue that Trump has usurped the power of Congress to set tariffs since he regained the White House in January.
The arguments at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit are being livestreamed on the court’s Youtube page.
The last court to hear the case, the U.S. Court of International Trade, struck down both Trump’s reciprocal and “trafficking”-related tariffs in late May.
But the Federal Circuit Appeals Court quickly paused that decision, keeping Trump’s tariffs in effect while the legal challenge plays out.
The appeals court is not expected to rule Thursday in the case, V.O.S. Selections v. Trump.
Trump has held up the case as a life-or-death moment for his trade agenda.
“To all of my great lawyers who have fought so hard to save our Country, good luck in America’s big case today,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday morning.
“If our Country was not able to protect itself by using TARIFFS AGAINST TARIFFS, WE WOULD BE ‘DEAD,’ WITH NO CHANCE OF SURVIVAL OR SUCCESS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he wrote.
Neal Katyal, the lawyer who is arguing against the Trump administration, said earlier Thursday, “The president is saying he, on his own, with his say-so, can impose these tariffs.”
“And that is something no president in 200 years has ever thought. The tariff power goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War and, you know, the protests in the Boston Tea Party and the like,” Katyal said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“And our Constitution was very clear in saying, you know, there’s one branch that has the power to tariff and it isn’t the president and it isn’t the courts,” Katyal said.
“It’s the Congress of the United States,” Katyal said.
Trump cited the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify his massive “reciprocal” tariff plan, which set a nearly global 10% baseline duty while slapping higher rates on dozens of individual countries.
Trump rolled out that policy in early April. But after financial markets convulsed in response, he quickly delayed the higher tariffs from taking effect.
Many of those tariffs — including revised rates for countries that have struck agreements with the U.S. or have been targeted by one of Trump’s recent trade letters — are set to snap back into place Friday.
Trump also invoked IEEPA as his authority to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China over alleged cross-border threats.
There are numerous other active lawsuits challenging Trump’s tariffs, but the V.O.S. case is the furthest one along and its outcome could dictate how other cases fare.
“We will continue to defend President Trump’s executive authority in courtrooms across the country,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on social media before the arguments began.
This is developing news and will be updated.
