1 week ago
10
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
A federal appeals panel will hear arguments from states and businesses that seek to invalidate the president’s tariffs.
July 31, 2025Updated 7:01 a.m. ET
U.S. businesses and state leaders will urge a federal appeals court on Thursday to invalidate many of President Trump’s tariffs, just one day before he is set to expand his global trade war with withering new duties on America’s closest trading partners.
The coming arguments underscore the financial stakes for U.S. importers — and the legal risks for the administration — as the White House begins to impose higher rates and carry out a series of new trade deals without the explicit approval of Congress.
The legal saga began this spring when a group of businesses and a coalition of states each sued the Trump administration on grounds that the president had vastly overstepped his authorities in the design of some of his steepest tariffs. A federal trade court agreed, determining in May that Mr. Trump did not have “unbounded” powers to impose duties as he saw fit.
The trade court ordered the White House to unwind those taxes on imports. But the Justice Department quickly appealed and soon secured a temporary halt to the mandate, allowing the president’s tariffs to remain in place. Lawyers for the Trump administration had argued that an abrupt end to the president’s policies would have sowed chaos and undermined its negotiations to broker more favorable trade agreements around the world.
The administration has since forged ahead with its plan to impose steep new tariffs on dozens of countries on Friday. The threat of significant duties helped Mr. Trump broker preliminary trade agreements with several other countries, including the European Union and Japan, both of which face tariffs of 15 percent on their exports to America.
But the underlying legal questions surrounding his strategy — and the extent to which the president can wage a limitless trade war — remain for the courts to determine. The hearing on Thursday, to be convened by a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, is a key step in what will surely be a fight that lands at the Supreme Court.
