Trump's tariffs to face major court test brought by US small business owners

Source: The Guardian

Mon 28 Jul 2025 11.47 EDT
Last modified on Mon 28 Jul 2025 12.46 EDT


Donald Trump’s strategy of imposing sweeping tariffs on America’s main trading partners will face a major test in the US courts on Thursday, four days after the president hailed the “powerful deal” reached with the EU and just hours before a new round of punishing import duties is set to come into effect. Trump has underpinned his tariff policy with an emergency power that is now being challenged as unlawful in the federal courts. On Thursday the US court of appeals for the federal circuit will hear oral arguments in the case, VOS Selections v Trump.

A group of small business owners are suing the US president on grounds that he lacks legal authority from Congress to impose severe tariffs that could damage their bottom line. The Trump administration has invoked a 1977 law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), claiming that various national emergencies – including US trade deficits with trading partners and the scourge of fentanyl trafficking – demand urgent action.

But the plaintiffs have countered that the IEEPA does not give the president the power to impose tariffs, and has never been used in such a way in its almost half a century on the statute books.

The case has the potential to derail Trump’s most significant tariff deals and negotiations, which he has made a centrepiece of his second presidency. Given how much is riding on it, the suit is likely eventually to be settled by the US supreme court under its current 6-3 supermajority of hard-right justices. In the short term, the challenge under the IEEPA looms as a black cloud over Trump’s desire to claim victory on the tariff front, as his controversial strategy of slapping hefty import duties on major trading partners continues to roil global trade and markets.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/28/trump-tariffs-lawsuit-small-business