
'Fail': US court blocks Trump's broad tariff orders

A United States federal trade court has blocked President Donald Trump from enforcing a broad set of tariffs, including his recently announced "Liberation Day" duties, ruling that he had exceeded his authority by unilaterally imposing levies on imports from nations with trading surpluses against the United States. The ruling was issued Wednesday by a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan. The panel found that Trump unlawfully invoked emergency economic powers to justify tariffs that targeted a wide array of countries, ruling that the U.S. Constitution grants Congress sole authority over foreign commerce, a power not superseded by the president's emergency economic powers. "The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the President’s use of tariffs as leverage. That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it," the judges wrote in their decision. The ruling came in response to two separate lawsuits: one brought by the Liberty Justice Center on behalf of five small U.S. importers, and another by a coalition of 13 states led by Oregon. The plaintiffs argued that the tariffs would severely impact their b