The Trump administration is considering asking the Supreme Court as soon as Friday to overturn a ruling by a U.S. trade court that blocked most of President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade unanimously ruled Wednesday that Trump overstepped his constitutional authority by imposing across-the-board tariffs on U.S. trading partners. The court ruled the Constitution gives Congress exclusive authority to regulate commerce with other countries that is not overridden by the president’s powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to safeguard the economy.
“President Trump is in the process of rebalancing America’s trading agreements with the entire world, bringing tens of billions of dollars in tariff revenues to our country, and finally ending the United States of America from being ripped off,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at Thursday’s briefing, which aired live on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 free online streaming platform.
“These judges are threatening to undermine the credibility of the United States on the world stage,” she said. “The administration has already filed an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal and an immediate administrative stay to strike down this egregious decision, but ultimately, the Supreme Court must put an end to this for the sake of our Constitution and our country.”
The administration has asked the trade court to pause its order pending appeal. Also Thursday, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, appointed by former President Barack Obama, issued a preliminary injunction blocking tariffs against two companies.
“On the merits, the [trade court] injunction rests on a dangerously flawed interpretation of the President’s tariff authority,” the administration wrote Thursday in the emergency motion to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. “Since 1941, Congress has authorized the President to ‘regulate importation’ of foreign goods whenever he declares a national emergency. … A stay pending appeal, and an immediate administrative stay, are necessary to prevent immediate, irreparable harm to the Nation.
“Absent at least interim relief from this Court, the United States plans to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court tomorrow to avoid the irreparable national-security and economic harms at stake.”
The three-judge panel of the trade court was composed of two judges appointed by Republican presidents, Jane Restani (Ronald Reagan) and Timothy Reif (Trump), and the other by a Democrat president, Gary Katzmann (Obama).
“President Trump correctly believes that America cannot function safely long-term if we are unable to scale advanced domestic manufacturing capacity, have our own secure critical supply chains, and our defense industrial base is dependent on foreign adversaries,” Leavitt said. “Three judges of the U.S. Court of International Trade disagreed and brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump to stop him from carrying out the mandate that the American people gave him.
“These judges failed to acknowledge that the president of the United States has core foreign affairs powers and authority given to him by Congress to protect the United States’ economy and national security. There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process. America cannot function if President Trump or any other president, for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.”
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