Warning that a series of court decisions blocking President Donald Trump’s tariffs “disrupt sensitive, ongoing negotiations with virtually every trading partner,” the Trump administration on Monday asked a federal appeals court to block an order last week that found the sweeping tariffs were “unlawful.”
In a lawsuit brought by two children’s toy companies, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., last week ruled that Trump does not have power to unilaterally impose tariffs “to reorder the global economy.”
Issued less than 24 hours after a panel of judges on the Court of International Trade issued its own decision blocking Trump’s tariffs, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras reached the same conclusion about the unlawfulness of the tariffs, but issued a less sweeping order, only blocking enforcement of the tariffs against the two companies that filed the lawsuit.
A federal appeals court subsequently temporarily delayed the Court of International Trade’s decision.
Trump in April announced far-reaching tariffs on dozens of countries in a Rose Garden ceremony that he dubbed “Liberation Day.”
In a filing Monday, the Trump administration argued that Judge Contreras’ ruling was flawed and that it undercuts the president while ” negotiations currently stand at a delicate juncture.”
“By holding the tariffs invalid, the district court’s ruling usurps the President’s authority and threatens to disrupt sensitive, ongoing negotiations with virtually every trading partner by undercutting the premise of those negotiations — that the tariffs are a credible threat,” the filing said.
Lawyers with the Department of Justice also argued that Judge Contreras lacks the jurisdiction to issue the decision because legal disputes over trade policy belong in the Court of International Trade.
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