[CTC] Appeals court keeps IEEPA tariffs in place until final ruling

[Arthur Stamoulis]

*Appeals court keeps IEEPA tariffs in place until final ruling *

*Inside US Trade*

*By David LaRoss <https://insidetrade.com/authors/David-LaRoss>  / June 10,
2025 at 9:42 PM*



The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is keeping President
Trump’s International Economic Emergency Powers Act tariffs in effect until
a final decision on their legality is made, teeing the litigation up for
oral argument before the full 12-judge court on July 31 – weeks after the
administration hopes to complete a series of trade deals using the tariffs
as leverage.

The Federal Circuit issued *an order*
<https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105.51.0.pdf>
late
on June 10 staying the Court of International Trade’s ruling holding the
IEEPA tariffs unlawful pending further review of its decision – including
at the Supreme Court, if it chooses to take up the case.



CIT’s May 28 order called for the Trump administration to wind down its
“emergency” tariffs within 10 days. But the Justice Department has sought
to *suspend that mandate* <https://insidetrade.com/node/183424>.



It has argued both that the lower court’s reasoning was deeply flawed – and
thus likely to be overturned on appeal – and that suddenly dropping the
tariffs would be a “disaster scenario” for ongoing trade negotiations that
the White House launched with dozens of countries after Trump announced
“reciprocal” IEEPA tariffs on most U.S. trading partners.



The Federal Circuit’s order emphasizes that its decision to grant the stay
does not mean it favors DOJ’s position on the tariffs’ legality, and
instead is based on efforts to “balance the equities” – a legal term of art
referring to those practical impacts.



“Both sides have made substantial arguments on the merits. Having
considered the traditional stay factors, the court concludes a stay is
warranted under the circumstances,” the order reads.



It then quotes from the Supreme Court’s May 22 order in a case known as
Trump v. Wilcox, where the justices stayed lower court decisions
overturning Trump’s dismissals of members of the National Labor Relations
Board and National Merit Systems Protection Board: “The purpose of . . .
interim equitable relief is not to conclusively determine the rights of the
parties, but to balance the equities as the litigation moves forward.”



The order says that rather than assigning the IEEPA litigation to a
three-judge panel, as is standard for appellate courts, the Federal Circuit
will hear the case en banc – meaning all 12 actively serving judges could
take part in the case and vote on the decision. Courts normally only review
a case en banc following a panel decision.



*“The court also concludes that these cases present issues of exceptional
importance warranting expedited en banc consideration of the merits in the
first instance,” the order reads.  *



The Federal Circuit has 8 Democratic appointees and four Republicans in
active service, though the order notes that Judge Pauline Newman, a Reagan
appointee, did not participate in the stay process.



That could indicate that she has recused herself from the case entirely,
though judges are not required to clearly state when they take such a step.



Finally, the order directs all sides in the consolidated litigation –
small-business plaintiffs, Democratic attorneys general who filed a
parallel suit over the IEEPA tariffs, and DOJ – to negotiate a briefing
schedule that would allow for oral argument the morning of July 31.

That timeline means the tariffs will still be in place when Trump’s pause
on the “reciprocal” tariffs expires on July 9 – the date that several
officials have marked as a target for *completing trade negotiations*
<https://insidetrade.com/node/183357> in which they say the IEEPA duties
serve as crucial leverage. -- *David LaRoss* (*dlaross at iwpnews.com*
<dlaross at iwpnews.com>)
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