Trump Says He Wants to Attend SCOTUS Hearing on IEEPA Tariffs
President Donald Trump told reporters on Oct. 15 that he would like to attend the Nov. 5 oral argument at the Supreme Court regarding whether he can use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs. After declaring that the tariffs he has imposed are essential for economic and national security matters, Trump said: "I'm going to go to the Supreme Court to watch it. I've not done that, and I've had some pretty big cases."
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The president added that he thinks the case is "one of the most important cases ever brought because we will be defenseless against the world [without the tariffs]."
During the argument, the high court will consider whether Trump can use IEEPA at all to impose tariffs, and, if so, whether that tariff power covers the President's reciprocal tariffs and tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico meant to combat fentanyl trafficking (see 2509180050).
The argument covers a pair of cases, one heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the other heard by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Federal Circuit held that IEEPA confers a tariff power but that this power didn't cover the reciprocal or fentanyl tariffs (see 2508290073); the D.C. court said the statute categorically doesn't confer a tariff power (see 2506200018).