President Donald Trump’s 10% across-the-board tariffs are in jeopardy after a federal court ruled them illegal on Thursday, dealing a second major blow this year to the president’s signature economic policy.
In a 2-1 ruling, the panel of judges at the US Court of International Trade found the administration lacked the justification to enact tariffs under a 1974 trade law known as Section 122. The administration began to enact these tariffs after a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year rendered its most sweeping levies illegal.
Thursday’s ruling calls for the administration to cease collecting these tariffs from the plaintiffs and refund prior payments. While only applicable to the impacted plaintiffs, it’s a major setback for the Trump administration and its tariff-enacting capacities.
Section 122 allows a president to impose tariffs up to 15% across all imports without getting congressional approval if certain criteria are met. In this instance, the judges found the administration’s argument for the tariffs insufficient.
The presidential proclamation putting the tariffs in place identifies no “large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits’ as Congress understood that phrase,” the majority ruling notes.
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