August 29, 2025
by Jason Dickstein
Today, the Federal Circuit court of Appeals issued an opinion that held that the executive orders that established tariffs under the IEEPA (“Trafficking” and “Reciprocal” tariffs) exceeded the authority delegated to the President by Congress. The court held that the executive orders were “invalid as contrary to law.”
The case rules on some of the new tariffs that the Administration has issued this year under Chapter 99 of the HTSUS. This ruling does NOT apply to ALL of the new tariffs.
This fight isn’t over. The Administration will likely appeal to the Supreme Court. In addition to that likely step, the Federal Circuit also sent the case back to the Court of International Trade to examine one issue.
The Court of International Trade had issued a nationwide injunction against the enforcement of the executive orders on the ground that they were illegal (decided May 28, 2025). Just one month later, the concept of nationwide injunctions against the United States government was the subject of a Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. CASA (decided June 27, 2025). That case held that “universal injunctions likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts.” The Supreme Court limited the injunctions only to the benefit of the plaintiffs.
The CASA decision seemed short-sighted at the time, because it means that if the government is doing something illegal, the courts can only prevent the illegal action against the plaintiffs, and not against the rest of the United States, thus forcing plaintiffs to certify a class (which can be difficult) in order to secure broad relief for all affected parties who might be affected by the acknowledgedly illegal government action. It essentially allows the government to continue breaking the law even after the courts have ruled that the government action is illegal.
The Court of International Trade now has to look at how it wants to approach a remedy to the illegal executive orders on tariffs. If it is limited to only an injunction for the benefit of the direct litigants, then that could open a flood gate of litigation if the Administration continues to charge import duties that have been ruled illegal.
The next decision of the Court of International Trade will be very important to the aviation suppliers’ community, because it could open the door to potential duty protests, in which ASA members may have an opportunity to petition for recovery of duties paid over the past few months. But this depends on the Court of International Trade being able to craft a remedy that extends to non-parties.
Under the Constitution, the judicial power of the Supreme Court extends “to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party,” and the Supreme Court’s power may be delegated to inferior courts in the Federal system. The basis of the CASA ruling was that Congress had not delegated to the federal courts the power to issue injunctions, but this seems to have ignored the inherent Constitutional power of the federal courts when the United States is a party. This may provide the Court of International Trade with an approach that allows it to issue a final ruling that protects all U.S. importers.
This may be merely the first verse of an epic. The Administration initiated a 232 investigation that could lead to new tariffs on aircraft and aircraft parts, so we could be looking at new tariffs in the near future even if the Court of International Trade finds a way to quash the executive orders.
Like this:
Like Loading...
You must be logged in to post a comment.