V.O.S. Selections

The Court of International Trade ordered that finally liquidated entries be reliquidated without regard to IEEPA duties. The order concerned entries for which liquidation was final.

After granting certiorari on September 9 and expediting the cases, the Court heard nearly three hours of argument in Learning Resources v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections. Solicitor General John Sauer argued that regulating importation plainly embraces tariffs; Neal Katyal for the businesses and Oregon's Benjamin Gutman for the states argued that IEEPA never mentions tariffs, duties or taxes. Justices across the spectrum pressed the government to point to statutory text authorising tariffs.

The full Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed that IEEPA's grant of authority to regulate imports does not authorize tariffs that are unbounded in scope, amount and duration, while vacating the trade court's nationwide injunction for reconsideration in light of the Supreme Court's CASA decision on universal relief. The court stayed its mandate until October 14 so the government could seek Supreme Court review, and the tariffs stayed in force.

A three-judge panel granted summary judgment to five small importers led by V.O.S. Selections, represented by the Liberty Justice Center, and to twelve states led by Oregon, holding that IEEPA's power to regulate importation does not confer unbounded tariff authority and that the trafficking tariffs did not deal with the emergencies declared. The court set aside both sets of tariffs and enjoined them nationwide. The Federal Circuit stayed the judgment the next day while the government appealed.