DC Court Says IEEPA Doesn't Include Tariff Power

The District Court for the District of Columbia struck down all tariff action taken under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act a day after the Court of International Trade did the same. However, Judge Rudolph Contreras went farther than the trade court, holding on May 29 that IEEPA categorically doesn't include the power to impose tariffs.

The judge denied the government's motion to transfer the suit to CIT, declaring the reciprocal tariffs and tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico to be "unlawful," though he didn't vacate the executive orders imposing those tariffs in their entirety, as did CIT.

The judge also preliminarily enjoined the collection of the tariffs, but only from the plaintiffs in the case, two small importers. He stayed the injunction for 14 days to give the government a chance to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Contreras' decision sets up a split on whether CIT has exclusive jurisdiction to hear IEEPA tariff cases and on whether IEEPA provides tariff-setting authority at all.