Federal Trade Court Blocks Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs

“The Constitution assigns Congress the exclusive powers to ‘lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,’” the court ruling states.

President Donald Trump holds a chart as he delivers remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event in the Rose Garden entitled “Make America Wealthy Again” at the White House in Washington on April 2, 2025. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

A federal court said on May 28 that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he declared a national emergency to impose sweeping baseline tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners earlier this year.

In a Wednesday ruling, the U.S. Court of International Trade, a federal court based in New York, said it did not interpret the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to mean that the president has the “authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world.”