Following a successful appeal from the White House, a federal court agreed to the temporary suspension of a lower court order from the U.S. Court of International Trade on Thursday, May 29th, which ruled that the President did not legally have the power to impose emergency tariffs.
In a separate federal court ruling—based on a single toy company—Judge Rudolph Contreras also found that the duties imposed exceed presidential authority. This too will not apply to the Trump tariffs, at least in the aftermath of the appeal.
The administration filed an appeal stating that “The political branches, not courts, make foreign policy and chart economic policy.” Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro was more bullish about the government’s prospects in the next round of court hearings:
You can assume that even if we lose, we will do it another way.
Tariffs on cars, steel and aluminium remain in place, as these were imposed on national security grounds (specifically Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962).
