Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, ECONOMIC NEWS—Appeals court strikes blow to White House’s tariffs, (Sep 2, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Although the Federal Circuit mostly ruled against the Trump administration, it allowed time for the parties to file for a writ of certiorari with SCOTUS.

On Friday, in a case that “involves the extent of the President’s authority under IEEPA to ‘regulate’ importation in response to a national emergency declared by the President,” the Federal Circuit ruled that the International Economic Powers Act’s grant of authority to the U.S. President does not authorize tariffs imposed by the President’s executive orders. However, the appeals court directed the clerk to withhold issuance of its mandate through October 14, 2025, to allow the parties time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court.

“[T]ariffs are a core Congressional power,” the Federal Circuit explained. “The ‘basic and consequential tradeoffs’ that are inherent in the President’s decision to impose the Trafficking and Reciprocal Tariffs ‘are ones that Congress would likely have intended for itself.’”

CIT decision. The Trump administration had appealed a decision of the Court of International Trade that set aside five EOs that, as described by the Federal Circuit, “imposed tariffs of unlimited duration on nearly all goods from nearly every country in the world.” The Federal Circuit agreed that the IEEPA’s grant of presidential authority to “regulate” imports did not authorize the tariffs imposed by the orders and affirmed.

The appeals court also affirmed the CIT’s grant of declaratory relief, but it vacated the CIT’s grant of a permanent universal injunction and remanded for the CIT to “reevaluate the propriety of granting injunctive relief and the proper scope of such relief, after considering all four eBay factors and the Supreme Court’s holding in CASA.”

The case is No. 25-1812.

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