This Obscure New York Court Is Set to Decide Fate of Trump s Tariffs – WSJ
The Trump administration s global tariffs face their first major legal test this week when a little-known Manhattan court considers one of the president s most sweeping assertions of executive power.
A three-judge panel at the Court of International Trade will hear arguments Tuesday on whether to halt the levies, which have unleashed a trade war with the world and threaten to upend the global economy.
The federal court, which has nationwide jurisdiction over tariff and trade disputes, operates for the most part in obscurity, rarely garnering a mention in major publications and staying off the radar of most attorneys.
Most lawyers will get out of law school without knowing that it exists, said Lawrence Friedman, a partner at law firm Barnes, Richardson & Colburn LLP who specializes in litigation at the court.
The court will step into the limelight this week in a lawsuit brought by New York-based wine importer V.O.S. Selections and four other small businesses who say President Trump doesn t have the authority to impose the tariffs. Other challenges have been filed in the court and in federal district courts around the country, but the V.O.S. case is front and center so far.
Trump unveiled his Liberation Day tariffs in early April, placing 10% levies on every nation. He imposed even higher rates on many countries he deemed bad actors, but later announced a 90-day pause on those duties. China wasn t included in the moratorium; instead Trump ratcheted up its tariffs to 145%. The president invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1970s-era law known as IEEPA, in imposing the sweeping tariffs, saying trade deficits had hobbled the U.S. economy and created a national emergency.
The Court of International Trade is no different than any other district court in the U.S., although it has a few quirks. Congress created it in 1980 as a successor to the U.S. Customs Court, which operated for decades in Manhattan when New York City was the busiest harbor for imports in the country.
via www.wsj.com
It wouldn’t surprise me it DJT did exceed his powers in his sweeping tariff pronouncements. The regulation is so dense it’s practically impossible to change tariffs, or to leave them the same.