On May 28 local time, a U.S. federal court halted the implementation of former President Donald Trump’s controversial tariff policy announced on April 2, dubbed “Liberation Day.” The court ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority by imposing blanket tariffs on countries that export more to the United States than they import.
The United States Court of International Trade in Manhattan stated that the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the exclusive authority to regulate trade with foreign nations. It emphasized that emergency powers invoked by the President to “protect the American economy” do not override this constitutional mandate.
The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Liberty and Justice, a nonprofit and nonpartisan legal advocacy organization, on behalf of five small American businesses adversely affected by the new tariffs. This marks the first major legal challenge to the tariff policy introduced by Trump in April.
On April 2, Trump signed an executive order at the White House introducing a so-called “reciprocal tariff” policy. It imposed a baseline 10% tariff on all trade partners, with significantly higher rates targeting specific nations. Trump referred to April 2 as “Liberation Day,” declaring it a new economic era for America. However, the announcement prompted swift retaliatory measures from several U.S. trading partners.
