When US trade court says no: The limits of presidential tariff authority

FOR the second time this year, a US federal court has told the Trump administration that it cannot tariff its way around the Constitution.

On May 7, a three-judge panel of the US Court of International Trade ruled 2-1 that the 10 per cent across-the-board duty the president had imposed in February was unauthorised by law.

The decision is narrow in its immediate reach, since only the small-business plaintiffs who sued are entitled to refunds and exemptions, but its implications are anything but.