Importers Seek Review by Supreme Court of Challenge to IEEPA Tariffs

The two companies, Hand2Mind and Learning Resources—importers of children’s educational items—stated this case “presents a question of paramount importance” that “will inevitably fall to this Court to resolve it definitively.”

In April, the two importers filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia arguing that the President does not have authority to impose tariffs under IEEPA. In May, the District Court agreed and held the Government could not enforce the tariffs—but only as to the two plaintiffs who filed suit. On June 3, the Government appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where the case is pending. The district court’s ruling remains on hold.

Learning Resources and Hand2Mind argue that the tariffs’ “massive impact on virtually every business and consumer across the Nation” means the Supreme Court should resolve the issue “now” and not await the typically protracted appellate process. The companies are seeking review in either September or October and state the central question posed would resolve both the “principal merits issue and [the] jurisdictional question that has split the courts: whether the federal district courts have jurisdiction (because IEEPA does not provide for tariffs) or whether the CIT has jurisdiction (because IEEPA does provide for tariffs).”

This case is separate from consolidated lawsuits filed by V.O.S. and the State of Oregon in the Court of International Trade challenging the President’s authority under IEEPA to impose tariffs, which we covered previously here. A three-judge CIT panel ruled for the plaintiffs and enjoined the Trump Administration’s executive orders instituting tariffs, but the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit have stayed the injunction pending appeal.

[View source.]