President Donald Trump said his administration would ask the Supreme Court for an expedited ruling in hopes of overturning a federal court decision that many of his tariffs were illegally imposed, arguing it is essential to keep his trade policy intact.
Trump told reporters that the U.S. would appeal to the high court for relief as soon as Wednesday because “it would be a devastation for our country” if the appeals court ruling was left in place.
“We’re going to be going to the Supreme Court, we think tomorrow, because we need an early decision,” Trump said Tuesday in the Oval Office. “We’re going to ask for an expedited ruling.”
The president’s comments follow a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday that Trump wrongfully invoked an emergency law for the so-called reciprocal tariffs he imposed on imports from dozens of trading partners as well as levies on Chinese, Canadian and Mexican goods he said were intended to address cross-border fentanyl trafficking.
The judges, however, let the tariffs stay in place while the case proceeds.
The decision injected fresh legal uncertainty over the fate of the administration’s agenda with potential impacts for trillions in global trade.
“The stock market’s down because the stock market needs the tariffs. They want the tariffs,” the president said.
Corporate debt sales and budget worries in the developed world were seen as the main drivers of the market selloff.
Friday’s ruling upheld an earlier decision by the Court of International Trade that Trump exceeded his authority in invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The appellate judges said the lower court should revisit the decision to block the tariffs in question for everyone, rather than just the parties who brought suit in the case.
The White House could have let the Court of International Trade revisit the case first instead of going directly to the Supreme Court, which has largely backed the president on other matters.
Friday’s ruling was only the latest turn in a tariff push that has seen delays, reversals and legal challenges that have injected uncertainty into the president’s agenda and left businesses, investors and trading partners — many of whom struck deals with Trump to secure lower rates — eager for any clarity. The dollar slipped against most Group-of-10 peers after the federal appeals court ruling on Friday.
Trump has leaned heavily on emergency powers to impose the import taxes, using the IEEPA to justify the sweeping country-specific levies unveiled in the Rose Garden on April 2.
“We would have to give trillions and trillions of dollars back to countries that have been ripping us off for the last 35 years, and I can’t imagine it happening on a legal basis,” Trump said.
U.S. importers, and not foreign governments, pay the tariffs.
If the court does ultimately strike down those global tariffs, the Trump administration has other, albeit more narrow, legal avenues to impose levies. Those mechanisms include tapping Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act to pursue industry-specific import taxes on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and wind turbines. The measure allows the president to regulate imports deemed a threat to national security.
Trump can also direct the U.S. Trade Representative, under Section 301 of the Trade Act, to impose tariffs in response to other nations’ trade measures deemed discriminatory to American businesses or in violation of U.S. rights under international trade agreements.
Trump has already announced tariffs on imports of steel, aluminum, copper and automobiles.
