Gideon Korrell Explains How the Court Blocked Unlawful Trade Tariffs
                     Gideon 
EKxoprlraeinlls  How 
the Court 
Blocked 
Unlawful 
Trade Tariffs
https://gideonkorrell.com/ PAGE 01
In an important decision, the U.S. 
Court of International Trade ruled 
that President Trump’s tariffs, made 
under the International Emergency 
Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), went 
beyond what the law and 
Constitution allow. Gideon Korrell, 
a legal expert, said this ruling 
clearly limits the President’s power 
over trade. The court canceled the 
tariffs and ordered the government 
to stop enforcing them across the 
country.
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Background: How the 
Tariffs Were Imposed
In January 2025, President Trump signed several 
executive orders creating two groups of tariffs:
• The “Trafficking Tariffs”: These added 25% tariffs 
on imports from Mexico andCanada, and 20% on 
goods from China, claiming those countries 
weren’t doing enough to stop drug trafficking.
• The “Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariffs”: These 
started with a 10% tariff on importsfrom all 
countries, increasing up to 50% on 57 specific 
countries. The reason given was to respond to 
long-term trade deficits and unfair trade 
practices.
These tariffs were challenged in court by five small 
businesses and thirteen U.S. states, who argued that 
the President had no legal power under IEEPA to 
https://gideonkorrell.com/ impose them. PAGE 03
What the Court 
Decided
The court had three judges who all agreed that the President 
did not have the power to issue these tariffs the way he did. 
Their decision has a nationwide effect.
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1. The President’s 
Power Under IEEPA Has 
Limits
IEEPA does give the President power to 
manage imports during a national 
emergency, but not to impose any tariff for 
any reason.
                    
“We do not read IEEPA to delegate an 
unbounded tariff authority to the 
President.”
 — Slip Op. at 3
The court said the “Worldwide and 
Retaliatory Tariffs” were too broad and had 
https://gideonkorrell.com/ no clear connection to any emergencyP,A GsE o05 
they were illegal.
The law requires that tariffs issued under IEEPA 
2. The must directly “deal with” a specific threat. But the court said these tariffs were more about 
“Trafficking putting pressure on other countries than solving the problem directly.
Tariffs” Were Not 
“The Trafficking Orders do not ‘deal with’ their 
Directly stated objectives... they aim to create leverage 
to ‘deal with’ those objectives.”
Addressing a  — Slip Op. at 46
This made them unlawful under IEEPA.
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The Result: Tariffs Are Cancelled and Cannot 
Be Enforced
The court didn’t just say the tariffs were wrong—it 
canceled the executive orders completely and banned 
their enforcement:
THE TARIFFS CUSTOMS AND THE DECISION 
BORDER 
ARE NO APPLIES TO ALL PROTECTION MUST IMPORTERS, NOT JUST 
LONGER STOP COLLECTING THE ONES WHO FILED 
VALID. THEM. THE LAWSUIT.
“If the challenged Tariff Orders are unlawful as to Plaintiffs they are 
unlawful as to all.”
 — Slip Op. at 48
Unless the government appeals and gets a delay from a higher court, 
the ruling takes effect immediately.
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What This Means for 
the Constitution and 
Tthhis eru liLnga rewinforces the fact that only 
Congress—not the President—has the 
power to set tariffs, as written in the U.S. 
Constitution (Article I, Section 8). The court 
made it clear that claiming a “national 
emergency” does not give unlimited power 
to the President.
“The mere incantation of ‘national 
emergency’ cannot, of course, sound the 
death-knell of the Constitution.”
 — Yoshida II, cited in Slip Op. at 30
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Gideon Korrell’s 
Final Take
Gideon Korrell, a respected legal analyst 
and constitutional expert, called this case 
one of the most important trade rulings in 
decades. He said the decision sends a 
strong message that the President cannot 
unilaterally control trade through 
emergency powers. It puts Congress back 
in charge of tariff policy and confirms the 
courts’ role in stopping executive 
overreach.
                                                             
For businesses and importers, this ruling 
means immediate relief. For legal and 
constitutional scholars, it marks a major 
win for the rule of law and the separation 
https://gideonkorrell.com/ of powers.          PAGE 09
ThanYou
k !
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