Earlier tonight, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit imposed a stay pending appeal temporarily blocking implementation of the Court of International Trade ruling striking down Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs, in the case filed by the Liberty Justice Center and myself on behalf of five businesses harmed by the tariffs. The stay also applies to the case filed by twelve states led by Oregon, decided in the same CIT ruling. The court's order is available here.
It's an unfortunate decision. As is often the case with stay orders, the court said very little about its reasoning. But it did seem to go out of its way to indicate this is not a ruling on the merits:
Both sides have made substantial arguments on the merits. Having considered the traditional stay factors, see Fed. R. App. P. 8; Nken v. Holder, 556 U.S. 418, 426 (2009), the court concludes a stay is warranted under the circumstances. See also Trump v. Wilcox, 605 U.S. ___, 145 S. Ct. 1415, 1415 (2025) (per curiam) ("The purpose of . . . interim equitable relief is not to conclusively determine the rights of the parties, but to balance the equities as the litigation moves forward….") The court also concludes that these cases present issues of exceptional importance warranting expedited en banc consideration of the merits in the first instance.
