The U.S. Court of International Trade, located in New York City and part of the Federal Court system, ruled that Trump’s tariffs violate the Constitution and must be cancelled within 10 days. There are exceptions for the “sectoral” tariffs (on steel, aluminum, auto parts); and several ways for the administration to re-announce the same “reciprocal” tariffs. Rapid appeals constitute one way, but there are also different laws from the 1930s and 1974 which can be claimed as the basis for the tariffs.
The “economic emergency” basis for declaring sweeping tariffs is the one rejected by this court, accepting the plaintiffs’ arguments that this was an absurd claim, and that Congress has the power to tax and that tariffs are taxes.
The administration is very unlikely to ask Congress to legislate the tariffs, so the question is called on whether there is any opposition in Congress to this blatant usurpation. Trump’s tariff-man hero, President William McKinley, was a Congressional leader when he got the Tariff Act of 1890 passed.
