Trump Bets On SCOTUS After Tariffs Are Tossed By Appeals Court

In a Friday-evening-before-a-holiday-weekend ruling, the federal Court of Appeals ruled that the tariffs that President Trump put in place were illegal. But that won’t be the end of the story.

Let’s all remember how this started, shall we?

At issue was the legality of Trump’s attempt to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — a 1977 emergency law — to enact the steep import fees and impose additional tariffs on certain trading partners.

The Trump administration argued that courts approved President Richard Nixon’s emergency use of tariffs in a 1971 economic crisis that arose from the chaos that followed his decision to end a policy linking the U.S. dollar to the price of gold, according to the AP.

Trump used the IEEPA law to enact the tariffs during his April 2 “Liberation Day” event.

Initially, the Court of International Trade ruled back in May that this use of the IEEPA was not legal. And now the Court of Appeals has affirmed that ruling.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on Friday that the IEEPA does not give presidents authority to levy duties.

“The power to ‘regulate’ has long been understood to be distinct from the power to ‘tax,’” the court wrote, underscoring that IEEPA’s language falls short of granting tariff powers.

“IEEPA’s grant of presidential authority to ‘regulate’ imports does not authorize the tariffs imposed by the Executive Orders,” the judges declared, affirming the Court of International Trade’s May decision.

The ruling emphasized that past uses of IEEPA had been limited to sanctions, embargoes, and asset freezes, not duties of this scope.

“Whatever the policy justifications may be, they cannot override Congress’s choice of statutory limits,” the court said.

Now, the Court of Appeals did agree that President Trump does have the ability to impose tariffs – just not under the “emergency” powers granted by the IEEPA.

The court rightly points out that Trump has no shortage of legal options to impose tariffs.

But he didn’t use those because they involve review processes, deadlines, public comment periods, and other restraints on his unilateral action. pic.twitter.com/LppD8BcPaj

— Dominic Pino (@DominicJPino) August 29, 2025

Interestingly, the ruling specifically references the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Biden administration’s attempt to forgive student loan debt – and points out that limitations to the power of the executive branch exist for a reason, because these tariffs are a tax, that power should belong to Congress.

To the government’s defense of the tariffs as a national security measure, the court’s response is simple:

The power to tax is not a national security power, and it belongs to Congress. pic.twitter.com/aSnASQ6wYN

— Dominic Pino (@DominicJPino) August 29, 2025

The entire decisions can be read here. However, the Court of Appeals knows that the administration will be immediately appealing this decision – so for now, they have withheld the order and the tariffs are still in place.

President Trump didn’t waste time in letting his opinion be known, and he fully expects that the Supreme Court will side with him.

But will SCOTUS agree with the president? That may be more of an uphill battle than Donald Trump thinks.

Possibly, but he’s starting with 3 “no” votes at SCOTUS and you can very easily imagine him losing Roberts. One more — perhaps a Gorsuch or Barrett, both of whom I could see finding it exceeds — and you’re done. https://t.co/XbVdVTwr4l

— Sunny (@sunnyright) August 29, 2025

Now, I am not a lawyer, nor am I an economist. What I would prefer is some free trade in order to really boost the economy, without extra tariffs slapped on. We need to be honest with ourselves – the tariffs that are raking in money right now are being paid by the American consumer. The cost is being passed along to you and me. The stock market has apparently accounted for that, and things are fairly stable at the moment (especially with the Trump tax cuts being made permanent), but “fairly stable” is not going to grow the economy. Will the Supreme Court agree with the Court of Appeals, and decide that a trade deficit does not constitute a “state of emergency,” as President Trump claimed? Will they rule that the IEEPA cannot be used for tariffs? And if Trump loses at the Supreme Court, will he then push Congress to institute tariffs? The president has long loved the idea of tariffs, but can he get Congress to agree with him, especially if the American public finally realizes that those tariffs are getting passed along to the consumer? That’s a very risky bet for Congressional members, representatives and senators alike, to take right before midterm elections.

My guess is that if SCOTUS does rule that Trump cannot use the IEEPA to levy tariffs, then he will take some time to go back to the drawing board on the whole kit and caboodle to see if he can retool the entire process. Then again, if the tariffs go back to what they were before “Liberation Day” and the market booms, will Trump simply forget about the idea if he has better economic results to ride to the midterms? In short, could the Supreme Court end up saving the president from himself? We’re going to find out before too long.

Featured image: President Donald Trump during the multilateral summit meeting on August 18, 2025, official White House photo by Daniel Torok via the White House Flickr page, cropped, public domain

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