Two American family-owned toy companies urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to step into the legal fray over President Donald Trump’s tariffs, asking the justices to quickly resolve the issue of whether the administration overstepped its authority by unilaterally launching a global trade war.
Trump has imposed, paused, hiked and lowered tariffs at a dizzying pace since taking office again in January, leaving businesses and consumers alike scrambling to figure out what products brought into the country will cost in the coming weeks and months.
The companies, Learning Resources and hand2mind, asked the court to bypass an appeal pending in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and resolve the underlying legal questions about Trump’s legal authority to impose the tariffs as soon as this year.
To levy the tariffs, Trump has relied on a 1977 law, known as IEEPA, that gives presidents the power to “regulate … importation” in certain circumstances, but that a lower court found doesn’t bestow blanket authority to raise global trade barriers on a whim.
“In light of the tariffs’ massive impact on virtually every business and consumer across the nation, and the unremitting whiplash caused by the unfettered tariffing power the president claims, challenges to the IEEPA tariffs cannot await the normal appellate process,” the companies told the Supreme Court in their filing.
Trump on April 2, which he called “Liberation Day,” imposed a 10% universal duty on most goods entering the United States, as well as some of the higher tariffs the president has imposed on China. Even if he ultimately loses the case, Trump could still impose tariffs under other legal authorities – but those include more onerous requirements or other drawbacks that would make it harder to turn them on and off like a switch.
In a separate case, a wine importer and other small businesses sued, along with a dozen states, arguing that Trump had overstepped his authority by relying on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to levy the tariffs. A federal court in New York agreed with the plaintiffs in late May in a decision that threatened to grind the president’s trade policies to a halt and that sent global markets soaring.
But the administration immediately appealed that decision and the federal appeals court in Washington, DC, agreed to put the lower court’s order on pause – and allow the tariffs to remain in place – while the underlying legal case continues.
The underlying legal issues in both cases are almost certain to be eventually decided by the Supreme Court. The appeal Tuesday seeks to speed that process up.
But the timing of the appeal is tricky, given that the Supreme Court is already working through its busiest period of the year, racing to get opinions published before the end of the month. The toy companies asked the Supreme Court to significantly expedite review of the case and decide, before it recesses for the summer, whether to hear arguments. The companies suggested those arguments should be heard when the court reconvenes in the fall.
“The president with the stroke of a pen increased the nation’s effective tariff rate tenfold to the highest it has been in more than a century,” the companies told the Supreme Court in the appeal. “IEEPA’s history has relied on that law to issue any tariff. Yet the current administration has used it to impose sweeping tariffs to reshape the national economy and global trade policy, raising taxes on Americans by hundreds of billions of dollars.”
A spokesperson said the Department of Justice will “continue to vigorously defend President Trump’s agenda to confront unfair trade practices in court.”
This story has been updated with additional comment.
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