Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—Federal Circuit administratively stays decision of U.S. Court of International Trade on tariffs, (May 30, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Meanwhile, in a separate lawsuit, a federal district court yesterday issued another ruling against the tariffs, granting a motion for a preliminary injunction but then putting it on hold.

On Wednesday, the United States Court of International Trade ruled that the law does not authorize any of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration under the IEEPA, finding them to be unlawful and ordering that they be permanently blocked. The Trump administration appealed on the same day, and by the end of day Thursday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a nonprecedential order, stepped in to administratively stay, temporarily, the International Trade Court’s judgments and the permanent injunction it had entered “until further notice” while the appeals court “considers the motion papers.”

Decision below. The court below had ordered that Executive Orders 14193, 14194, 14195, 14257, and all modifications and amendments were declared to be invalid as contrary to law and further ordered that the operation of the Challenged Tariff Orders and all modifications and amendments thereto were permanently enjoined. It also ordered that, within 10 calendar days, “necessary administrative orders to effectuate the permanent injunction shall issue[.]”

June 5, 2025. Now, the Federal Circuit has ordered, in addition to the stay, that the parties should immediately inform it of any action taken by the court below on the federal government’s pending stay motions and has ordered the plaintiffs-appellees to respond to the government’s motions for a stay by June 5, 2025.

D.C. district court decision. Notwithstanding the developments in the Federal Circuit, in one of the several other lawsuits brought against the Trump administration over the tariffs, this one by a couple of toy companies, yesterday, a federal district court in D.C. also granted a motion for a preliminary injunction and declared that the tariffs imposed under the IEEPA in Executive Orders 14195, 14228, 14257, 14259, and 14266 were unlawful. It also denied the government’s motion to transfer the action to the U.S. Court of International Trade.

The district court explained:

“This case is not about tariffs qua tariffs. It is about whether IEEPA enables the President to unilaterally impose, revoke, pause, reinstate, and adjust tariffs to reorder the global economy. The Court agrees with Plaintiffs that it does not.”

However, the preliminary injunction is applicable only to the plaintiffs and, moreover, was stayed by the district court for 14 days so that the parties could seek review by the appeals court.

The cases below are Nos. 25-00066 and 25-00077. The Federal Circuit docket is No. 25-1812.

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