WATCH: Trump to push Supreme Court for quick ruling on tariff authority
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration will ask the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to quickly take up his appeal on tariff authority after two lower courts rejected his claims of broad authority to issue import duties under a 1977 law.
“It’s a very important decision and frankly, if they make the wrong decision, it will be devastation for our country,” the president said from the Oval Office on Tuesday.
On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling that invalidated the tariffs. Still, the court said the highest import duties in nearly a century could remain in place while the administration appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the 7-4 decision, the Federal Circuit court said tariff power rests with Congress, not the president. It also found that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act didn’t grant the president such authority.
Trump said his team will ask the U.S. Supreme Court for an expedited review.
In a letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit filed after oral arguments, Solicitor General D. John Sauer and Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate warned the court that tariffs must stay in place to prevent a financial disaster.
“Suddenly revoking the President’s tariff authority under IEEPA would have catastrophic consequences for our national security, foreign policy, and economy,” they wrote in a letter. “The President believes that our country would not be able to pay back the trillions of dollars that other countries have already committed to pay, which could lead to financial ruin.”
Trump also criticized those who brought suit challenging his tariffs.
“Everybody’s happy, but some whack job put in a lawsuit,” Trump said Tuesday.
He claimed during the same event that foreign companies brought the lawsuit without providing proof.
“A lot of the people behind that particular lawsuit are from foreign countries,” Trump said.
A group of U.S. states sued along with five small U.S.-based businesses after Trump announced a slate of “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 2. Trump paused implementation of those tariffs while his trade team negotiated deals with two-thirds of America’s top trading partners. Trump later unilaterally put tariffs on nearly every U.S. trading partner.
In mid-April, Liberty Justice Center, a Texas-based nonprofit, filed the case on behalf of New York-based wine and spirit importers VOS Selections; Pennsylvania-based freshwater fishing supplier FishUSA; Utah-based plumbing and irrigation suppliers Genova Pipe; Virginia-based toy designer MicroKits LLC; and Vermont-based women’s bicycling company Terry Precision Cycling.
Liberty Justice Center didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday regarding Trump’s allegations that the lawsuit was backed by foreign interests.
In May, the U.S. Court of International Trade unanimously ruled that Congress did not give the president tariff authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. The ruling voided Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs and struck down other tariffs Trump issued under the IEEPA. The administration appealed to the Federal Circuit, which ruled that Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs could remain in place while the legal challenge continued.
Trump has said he wants to use tariffs to restore manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past, shift the tax burden away from U.S. families and pay down the national debt.
A tariff is a tax on imported goods paid by the person or company that imports the goods. The importer can absorb the cost of the tariffs or try to pass the cost on to consumers through higher prices.
Economists, businesses and some public companies have warned that tariffs could raise prices on a wide range of consumer products.
New tariffs raised $58.5 billion in revenue between January and June of this year before accounting for income and payroll tax offsets, according to an analysis of federal data from the Penn Wharton Budget Model.
Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office, the government’s official scorekeeper, estimated that Trump’s tariffs could bring in $4 trillion over the next decade. That’s nearly enough to cover the spending and tax cuts in the GOP’s massive One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
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