A US appeals court has found most of the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs to be unlawful, but agreed to leave them in place while the White House pursued a further appeal to the Supreme Court.
In a 7-4 ruling handed down on Friday, the court upheld a decision that found many of the tariffs imposed exceeded Trump’s presidential authority. However, the panel agreed not to put the ruling into effect until October 14 to give the administration time to appeal to the high court.
The US Court of International Trade ruled in May, in a case originally brought by American businesses hurt by the tariffs, that Trump did not have the authority to use emergency economic powers legislation to impose worldwide levies without the explicit consent of Congress.
A majority on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed, writing on Friday that they could “discern no clear congressional authorisation” for the Trump administration to use justifications such as the importation of fentanyl across US borders to impose broad tariffs on countries including Canada and China via a series of executive orders.