“The statute bestows significant authority on the President to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax,” the court said.
Most of President Donald Trump’s global tariffs were ruled illegal by a federal appeals court that found he exceeded his authority by imposing them through an emergency law, but the judges let the levies stay in place while the case proceeds.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday upheld an earlier ruling by the Court of International Trade that Trump wrongfully invoked the law to hit nations across the globe with steep tariffs. But the appellate judges said the lower court should revisit its decision to block the tariffs for everyone, rather than just the parties in the case.
