As several have already noted,
the US Court of Appeals for the Federal District has affirmed the Court of International Trade's decision that "IEEPA's grant of presidential authority to 'regulate' imports does not authorize the tariffs imposed by the Executive Orders".
It's a little more complicated than that, for several reasons. One is footnote 20, on page 44:
We are neither affirming nor reversing the CIT’s holding that any relief short of a universal injunction would be unconstitutional as violative of the Uniformity Clause. On remand, the CIT will need to reconsider this holding in light of the guidance provided by the Supreme Court in CASA.
Remanding that issue back to the Court of International Trade (CIT) has the potential to delay the effect of today's decision.
In any event, the ruling will not take effect before 14 October, giving the defendants (Trump
et al.) time to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court might drag this out, but dragging this out would have serious economic effects as everyone waits to see whether the tariffs will go away.
The longer that uncertainty persists, the bigger the mess Trump
et al. will have on their hands if these court decisions are upheld. In their
emergency motion for a stay pending appeal of the CIT decision, Trump
et al. promised to refund all tariffs that are found to have been collected illegally:
If tariffs imposed on plaintiffs during these appeals are ultimately held unlawful, then the government will issue refunds to plaintiffs, including any post-judgment interest that accrues.
Trump
et al. had to make that promise as part of their argument that no plaintiffs would be harmed by allowing the US government to continue to collect tariffs while their appeals play out. We are talking here about $159 billion in tariffs that have already been collected, and that figure is growing with every day that passes.
So the longer this drags on, the bigger the mess Trump
et al. will have to clean up if they continue to lose this case on appeal to the Supreme Court.
That's one reason for Trump's characteristically over-the-top reaction to this ruling. ("If these Tariffs ever went away, it would be a total disaster for the Country.") Another reason: The Trump administration has been using these tariffs as a threat when negotiating with other countries. With the legality of those tariffs in serious question, the effectiveness of that threat is diminished.
(Personally, I expect the Trump administration to renege on its promise to refund the tariffs if they are found to be illegal. A number of people who are more qualified than I are already speculating about how Trump could squirm out of an adverse decision, so I'll just leave that here.)
www.bbc.com
www.indiatoday.in
