A second federal judge has ruled against President Donald Trump’s sweeping use of emergency tariffs, intensifying the legal and political battle over one of the administration’s signature economic policies.
US District Judge Rudolph Contreras of Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday blocking the government from collecting tariffs from two educational toy companies, Learning Resources Inc. and hand2mind Inc., who manufacture most of their products in Asia.
In his ruling, Contreras held that Trump lacked authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977 to impose the duties outlined in four executive orders earlier this year.
“The International Economic Emergency Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose the tariffs set forth,” Contreras wrote, adding that the statute “doesn’t encompass the power to impose the sort of sweeping levies used by Trump.”
He noted that “in the five decades since IEEPA was enacted, no President until now has ever invoked the statute…to impose tariffs.”
The decision, which aligns with a separate ruling issued Wednesday by the US Court of International Trade in New York, delivers another blow to Trump’s second-term trade agenda.
A three-judge panel from that court similarly concluded that the president’s use of IEEPA to justify broad “reciprocal tariffs” was impermissible.
“That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [IEEPA] does not allow it,” the panel wrote.
