A federal appeals court struck down President Trump’s use of emergency powers granted by Congress to impose tariffs by holding that no emergency existed. Trump asked the Supreme for a hearing on September 10 to stay the lower court’s ruling. There’s little doubt that the Supreme Court will continue its pattern of accommodating Trump by staying the lower court’s decision, leaving his tariffs in effect until the Court decides the case in 2026, and allowing Trump to increase their amounts and issue new tariffs until then.
Take a look back at how the Supreme Court freed Trump to continue with actions blocked by lower courts:
- The Court blocked an injunction holding that immigrants are entitled to an opportunity to challenge their deportation with claims they would face torture, or even death.
- The Court paused a Court order blocking the deportation of eight men detained in a shipping container in Djibouti for six weeks, allowing Trump to deport them until the Court can hear arguments and decide the case.
- It used to be that federal court injunctions against unconstitutional acts applied nationwide. No more. The Court held that federal court injunctions apply only to parties named in the litigation.
The result is unthinkable and unworkable, but it helped Trump. Nationwide injunctions have blocked many of Trump’s unconstitutional Executor Orders. Now that they’re paused, Trump can enforce them until the Court decides the cases.
Trump’s Majority has a history of delaying decisions when it behooves Trump. They postponed Trump’s criminal trial brought by Jack Smith until after the 2024 election. In contrast, it took the Supreme Court just 16 days to unanimously decide that Nixon wasn’t immune from prosecution and one day to give George W. Bush the Presidency.
Trump issued his latest tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act which allows the president to deal with unusual and extraordinary foreign threats to national security, foreign policy, or the economy. The appeals court rejected Trump’s claims that imported fentanyl and America’s trade deficits (substantial caused by Trump’s tax cuts) did not meet the “unusual and extraordinary threat” test.
The lower court noted that the IEEPA did not use the term “tariff,” unlike other statutes that expressly grant such power, and that broad expansions of executive power with massive economic or other impacts require clear and unmistakable Congressional authorization, which is absent in the IEEPA.
It’s no wonder that no other president has used the IEEPA to impose tariffs. But, both tragically and worrisome, the Supreme Court has given Trump freedoms that neither Congress nor the Constitution has granted him. They’ll probably do it again.
