US Appeals Court Rules Trump Tariffs As Illegal– But They May Not Go Away

A United States appeals court confirmed yesterday after a divided vote that Trump's tariffs are illegal, but the Trump administration is expected to file an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The court stated that most of Trump's tariffs – including his reciprocal tariffs on all nations – are not legal after the vote ended 7-4 in favor of the appealing party. Currently, Trump has taken advantage of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose his tariffs– the act allows for the president to take various actions during a national emergency.

Nevertheless, the court confirmed that the act does not specifically state what actions are viable, meaning that it does not give the president explicit power to impose tariffs. Furthermore, the court expressed their beliefs that the initial purpose of the act was not to allow the actions Trump has been taking– it was originally passed to allow the government to impose sanctions on other nations.

This would force Trump to rescind all of the tariffs he has placed over the last few months, which have heavily reshaped the global economy as countries attempt to strike trade deals with the US to avoid substantial tariffs.

However, the court has not removed Trump's tariffs. Instead, they established that the Trump administration would be able to reverse the decision with an appeal to the Supreme Court before October 14.

Trump later claimed that the appeals court was highly biased and expected the Supreme Court to overturn the decision in his favor, which could be likely considering the fact that six of the justices are Republican– in fact, three were appointed to the position by Trump himself. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court has taken an unfriendly approach to allowing presidents to use loopholes in older bills for other purposes.

Additionally, experts also strongly believe that the Trump administration has devised a second strategy, allowing them to utilize some sort of other law to keep the tariffs in place. Due to these factors, it is still unknown whether Trump's tariffs will actually take effect for good or whether they are simply temporary before the Supreme Court strikes them down.

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