A federal appeals court said Tuesday that President Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs can remain in effect while the legal battle over them rages, delivering an important victory to the White House which says the tariffs are needed to force better terms with America’s trading partners.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said a “stay” of a lower court decision against the tariffs “is warranted under the circumstances.”
The judges, in an unsigned order, said they aren’t yet taking a firm position on the legality of Mr. Trump’s tariffs but to “balance the equities” as the legal case proceeds.
The appeals court also said it is speeding the matter to the full court, skipping over the usual three-judge panel approach that predominates in federal appeals-court action.
“The court also concludes that these cases present issues of exceptional importance warranting expedited en banc consideration of the merits in the first instance,” the judges said.
The U.S. Court of International Trade had struck down two sets of tariffs — a new global levy and specific tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese goods imposed as retaliation for what Mr. Trump said was too little effort to halt drug trafficking into the U.S.
The trade court ruled that the 1970s-era law Mr. Trump was using, the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, doesn’t give the president the expansive powers he is claiming to “impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world.”
The appeals court had previously put that ruling on hold temporarily while it pondered a more lasting stay.
That stay is what it issued Tuesday. The new blockade will last until the full appeals court has heard the case.
A judge on the federal district court in Washington also has ruled that Mr. Trump’s tariffs exceeded his powers. That judge issued a blockade on Mr. Trump’s tariffs but only for the two family-run toy companies that had sued in his courtroom.
That ruling is unaffected by Tuesday’s action, though the Justice Department has appealed that decision to a different appeals court, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
