Federal appeals court judges on Thursday sharply questioned President Donald Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs on foreign trading partners under an unprecedented use of emergency powers.
Several judges of the Washington, D.C.-based Federal Circuit Court of Appeals repeatedly wondered how Trump could justify the broad tariffs using a 1977 law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, that presidents have used to set economic sanctions and other penalties on foreign countries — but never previously tariffs.
“One of the major concerns that I have is that IEEPA doesn’t even mention the word tariffs anywhere,” said Judge Jimmie Reyna, an Obama appointee.
Other judges seemed to agree that Trump had used a statute intended to give presidents emergency powers to deal with an international crisis to, instead, usurp a key congressional responsibility.
