UNITED STATES COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Slip Op. 25-66

In V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. U.S., Court. Nos. 25-00066 and 25-00077, Slip Op. 25-66 (May 28, 2025), the Court addressed “whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (“IEEPA”) delegates [certain] powers to the President in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world.” The Court set aside the tariffs at issue, holding that IEEPA does not “confer such unbounded authority” to the President. The Court granted Plaintiffs’ Motions for Summary Judgment and denied their Motions for Preliminary Injunction as moot.

At issue in the opinion were two categories of tariffs: Trafficking Tariffs and Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariffs. The Plaintiffs were private companies V.O.S. Selections, Genova Pipe, MicroKits, FishUSA, and Terry Cycling together with the States of Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, and Vermont. The Defendants were the United States, the President, and certain agencies and officials (collectively, “the Government”). The private Plaintiffs “alleg[ed] and aver[red] that they have suffered (and will continue to suffer) economic injuries as a result of the Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariffs”; the State Plaintiffs “challeng[ed] the President’s Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariffs along with the President’s imposition of Trafficking Tariffs.”

The Court opened its opinion with reference to constitutional principles of law and the history of trade-related legislation, explaining that “Congress has responded to the growing complexity of global economic relations by delegating trade authority to the President.” For example, in 1917, Congress expanded the President’s statutory authority under the Trading with the Enemy Act (“TWEA”) to “declare states of emergency and exercise authority over international trade even outside times of war.” Following a special committee’s review of the 1974 decision, United States v. Yoshida Int’l. Inc., “Congress cabined the President’s powers under TWEA to wartime” and enacted IEEPA to grant “the President a new set of authorities for use in time of national emergency.” Comm. on Int’l Rels., Trading with the Enemy Act Reform Legislation, H.R. Rep. No. 95-459, at 2 (1977).

Against this background, the Court answered whether the words “regulate . . . importation” in IEEPA grant the President unlimited authority to impose tariffs. The Court held that the tariffs were ultra vires, reasoning that “[t]he Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariffs lack any identifiable limits and thus fall outside the scope of § 1702 [of IEEPA]” and that the Trafficking Tariffs do not meet the condition set forth in IEEPA that they must “deal with an unusual and extraordinary threat.” 50 U.S.C. § 1701(b) (emphasis added in 25-66). Finding limits on the President’s power to impose tariffs under IEEPA, the Court affirmed judicial reviewability of statutory interpretation and centered constitutional principles of nondelegation and separation of powers in its opinion.