Posted on Friday, May 30, 2025
|
by Shane Harris
|
77 Comments
|
This week, a panel of unelected judges effectively overturned the will of the electorate and hamstrung the ability of President Donald Trump and all future presidents to negotiate with foreign nations on trade. A federal appeals court has paused that ruling and reinstated the tariffs – for now – but the resulting chaos is bad news for American workers and businesses.
The saga began on Wednesday when the obscure Court of International Trade ruled that Trump does not have authority to enact sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA). Trump has used that law as the legal basis for most of the tariffs imposed during his second term, including the 10 percent baseline “Liberation Day” tariffs levied on almost every U.S. trading partner in April.
IEEPA specifically grants the president authority to regulate commerce in response to an unusual or extraordinary threat to national security, foreign policy, or the economy which originates in whole or substantial part outside the United States. It allows the president to block transactions and freeze assets without prior approval from Congress, once a national emergency is declared.
In other words, it says that if there is a legitimate national security reason to enact tariffs, the president has the power to unilaterally do so.
Trump has argued that U.S. reliance on China and other foreign suppliers constitutes such a national security threat. As the administration has repeatedly stated, events like the COVID-19 pandemic showed how dangerous it is for the United States to depend on Chinese supply chains – particularly for materials necessary in U.S. military and healthcare equipment.
In its ruling, however, a three-judge panel on the Court of International Trade wrote that “The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder.” It was, in effect, a wrecking ball smashing into Trump’s tariff agenda.
The administration quickly appealed the ruling, and on Thursday a federal appeals court temporarily paused the ruling from the Court of International Trade. As a result, the tariffs will remain in place until at least June 9. The White House has indicated it plans to seek further emergency relief from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Regardless of the outcome of the appeals process, however, the initial ruling is yet another egregious judicial power grab and has upended Trump’s ability to deliver on what voters sent him to Washington to accomplish last November.
As White House spokesperson Kush Desai argued, it should not be “for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency.” True enough. Lawyers will debate the merits of the court’s holding that America’s gargantuan trade deficit and reliance on the country’s top geopolitical rival for basic goods does not constitute an “emergency.” It could well be the case that the ruling is swiftly overturned on appeal and Trump’s tariffs are allowed to remain in place.
But in the immediate term, it’s worth taking a look at the disastrous effects of this ruling for American democracy and the ability of the Trump administration to secure better deals for American workers and businesses.
There is no denying that, when it comes to tariffs, Trump is doing exactly what voters elected him to do. Tariffs were a central part of Trump’s 2024 campaign platform. He specifically proposed a universal baseline tariff of 10–20 percent on all imports, with higher rates for specific countries – 60 percent or more on Chinese goods, 25–100 percent on Mexican imports, and 100 percent on all foreign-made cars.
In other words, tariffs were not some throwaway policy or hidden item tucked away in the pack of his platform. They were the defining theme of his trade agenda, and the central tenet of his pledge to restore American manufacturing. When 77.3 million Americans cast their ballots for Trump last year, they were voting for tariffs.
Yet now three unelected judges in New York have substituted their own judgment of what constitutes a national security emergency in place of the judgment of the duly elected President of the United States. In doing so, they have decreed that Trump cannot pursue the policy voters elected him to pursue.
The decision has also thrown the administration’s ongoing negotiations with foreign nations into chaos. Trump’s tariffs were working – dozens of countries were rushing to the negotiating table to rewrite deals. But the judicial branch has cut Trump off at the knees, taking away his hard-won leverage. Why should any foreign leader make concessions to the United States to lower tariffs when they now have reason to believe American courts will overturn the president’s authority to levy tariffs in the first place?
This ruling is more than a legal setback – it’s a constitutional insult and a blow to democratic self-government. If courts can now override a president’s emergency powers – clearly outlined in law and backed by the electorate – then elections no longer mean anything. This is not judicial review; it is judicial supremacy. And unless the decision is overturned, it sets a dangerous precedent for the future of presidential authority and American sovereignty.
Shane Harris is the Editor in Chief for AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
Read full article here