TrendMacro conversation with Jeffrey Schwab and Sara Albrecht of the Liberty Justice Center, the legal team overturning the Trump tariffs

The Liberty Justice Center is the public interest law firm that brought suit in V.O.S. Selections v. Trump, and got a ruling from the Court of International Trade that Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act are unlawful. The case is now on appeal in the Federal Circuit, and is destined to be ultimately decided in the Supreme Court. The plaintiffs argue that the IEEPA’s authority to “regulate importation” does not confer the power to tax, which is reserved to Congress. And citing the trade deficit as an emergency contradicts the law’s requirement that it be “unusual,” and usurps the Trade Act of 1974’s powers to tariff for that reason. The appellate court should rule by mid-August. The Supreme Court will take up the case immediately, and the case will be argued by a stellar appellate attorney with a conservative bent. But there is no way to know how long it will take to get a ruling, but it will likely be expeditious. If the Court agrees the tariffs are unlawful, there is no precedent as to how or if people who have paid tariffs can get a refund. Trump has other ways to impose tariffs, but no other way is so sweeping and unbounded.