On May 28, 2025, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled that the President's reliance on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) as the legal authority underpinning reciprocal tariffs was unconstitutional. The CIT also ruled that the President's tariff orders as a method to "deal with" trafficking in fentanyl were overly attenuated and impermissible. Based on these findings, the CIT ordered that President Trump's reciprocal and fentanyl related tariffs be permanently enjoined. Further, the Court ordered that within 10 calendar days, the Administration must issue orders to effectuate the permanent injunction. The U.S. government immediately appealed the CIT's decision to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, including filing a motion for a stay of the CIT judgment pending appeal. The motion to stay judgment was granted on May 29.
The challenges to the President's tariffs involved the non-delegation doctrine. In essence, a legal doctrine concerning restrictions on Congress from delegating its Constitutional powers and duties to the Executive branch. The powers at issue in these cases are the powers to "lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises" and to "regulate Commerce with foreign Nations." In the CIT's view, the challenges to reciprocal tariffs and fentanyl tariffs were whether IEEPA "delegates these powers to the President in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world." In particular, the CIT explained that IEEPA does not "delegate an unbounded tariff authority to the President[,]" but rather that "IEEPA's provisions [ ] impose meaningful limits on any such authority it confers."
In light of the importance of these issues, it is likely that this matter will eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. Further, the CIT's decision does not limit the Trump administration from taking action under other trade authorities such as Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 or Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. With the removal of the IEEPA tariffs, it is likely more U.S. manufacturers will pursue private trade remedy actions such as anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations.
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