A Court Ruling Throws a Wrench in Trump's Trade Policy
- Aug 30
- 2 min read
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In a stunning legal blow to one of the administration’s core policies, a U.S. appeals court has found the majority of President Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs to be unlawful. The court ruled that the president exceeded his authority by using a specific emergency law to impose levies on a global scale, a power that should have been granted with explicit congressional consent.
The ruling upholds an earlier decision brought by American businesses, which argued that these tariffs had caused them direct financial harm. The court was clear in its decision, stating that it could not find any "clear congressional authorisation" for the president to use national security claims to justify broad tariffs on nations like Canada and China.
The decision now throws the future of these tariffs into a state of flux. While the court has agreed to keep the levies in place for now, it has also set a clear deadline, giving the administration until mid-October to appeal to the Supreme Court. The question now becomes: will the nation’s highest court agree with the lower courts and permanently dismantle one of the most significant trade policy decisions of the last decade?
