The Trump administration lost two major cases before two different federal appellate courts in the last week, each one involving a separate unilateral executive action that was ruled illegal. With the U.S. Supreme Court readying to return early next month from its summer break, both cases are worth a close watch, as either one of them could easily land on the Court's docket for oral arguments and judgment sometime in the upcoming 2025–26 term.
So let's consider each case in turn.
Last Friday, August 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that President Donald Trump's imposition of "tariffs of unlimited duration on nearly all goods from nearly every country in the world" was unlawful because Trump's purported authority for this sweeping action, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), did not authorize the president to do any such thing.
