Companies Bring First Trump Tariff Challenge To Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday received its first request to consider whether President Donald Trump’s tariffs are constitutional.

Two educational toy companies, Learning Resources and hand2mind, urged the justices to immediately take up their case rather than letting it play out in the lower court.

“In light of the tariffs’ massive impact on virtually every business and consumer across the Nation, and the unremitting whiplash caused by the unfettered tariffing power the President claims, challenges to the IEEPA tariffs cannot await the normal appellate process (even on an expedited timeline),” the application states.

The companies argue Trump did not have authority to impose the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)

“No President in IEEPA’s history has relied on that law to issue any tariff,” the application states. “Yet the current Administration has used it to impose sweeping tariffs to reshape the national economy and global trade policy, raising taxes on Americans by hundreds of billions of dollars.”

A federal judge held in May that Trump did not have authority to impose tariffs under IEEPA but put the ruling on hold.

Though the appeals court has not yet considered the issue, the companies told the justices that taking their case now would allow it to be briefed over the summer and “argued as soon as possible.”

In a separate ruling, the United States Court of International Trade (CIT) found IEEPA did not give Trump the authority to impose sweeping reciprocal tariffs. This ruling was also put on hold by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, setting a baseline 10% tariff on all imports, along with higher tariffs for dozens of countries. He also placed tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada in February in response to the “extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl.”