A United States federal appeals court has ruled that most of former President Donald Trump’s tariffs were unlawful, striking a major blow to one of the signature pillars of his economic policy.
In a 7–4 decision delivered on Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that Trump exceeded his authority by invoking emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs on imports. The ruling, however, has been stayed until October 14, giving the Trump team time to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The tariffs were imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a 1977 law historically used to sanction foreign adversaries or freeze assets. Trump instead applied it to justify broad tariffs on U.S. trading partners, claiming that persistent trade deficits and the flow of illegal drugs such as fentanyl amounted to national emergencies.
The court flatly rejected that rationale.
“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 ruling stated.
It added, “It seems unlikely that Congress intended, in enacting IEEPA, to depart from its past practice and grant the President unlimited authority to impose tariffs.”
The judgment affects two sets of tariffs imposed during Trump’s second term: the “reciprocal” tariffs introduced in April as part of a wider trade push, and another set rolled out in February targeting China, Canada, and Mexico. Trump had tied the latter to what he alleged was those nations’ failure to curb fentanyl trafficking , an assertion all three governments have dismissed.
Reacting on his Truth Social platform, Trump blasted the court’s decision as politically motivated.
“This is a highly partisan ruling,” he wrote. “If these Tariffs ever went away, it would be a total disaster for the Country.”
The former president nevertheless expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would overturn the decision.
