Trump Tariffs Showdown Meets Full Court Press
13:06 Share

Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website, to marketing, to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer.

If you've heard that sound from Babbel before, I bet you do. Babbel is the science-backed language learning app that actually works. With quick 10-minute lessons handcrafted by over 200 language experts, Babbel gets you on your way to speaking a new language in just a few weeks. With over 16 million subscriptions sold and a 20-day money-back guarantee, just start speaking another language with Babbel. Right now, up to 55% off your Babbel subscription at

The NBA playoffs are here, and I'm getting my bets in on FanDuel. Talk to me, Chuck GPT. What do you know? All sorts of interesting stuff. Even Charles Barkley's greatest fear. Hey, nobody needs to know that. New customers bet $5 to get 200 in bonus bets if you win. FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook.

Got some breaking news about tariffs. The T word, as Donald Trump would like to say.

He's got a loss by Judge Contreras in the District of Columbia about some individual tariffs on Chinese opioids and things like that. Fresh on the heels of last night's decision by the Court of International Trade. But we have an administrative stay.

by the federal circuit, that specialty appellate court that sits in the District of Columbia, giving them time to read all the papers about whether Donald Trump will be successful in overturning the complete block of his retaliatory tariffs by that Court of International Trade.

What is an administrative stay? Does it mean they've made a ruling on the substance of the issue? Why did so many judges join together in issuing the administrative stay? And does it mean anything about the ultimate decision that they're going to make? I'm going to answer all those questions and more right here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. How did we get here?

Donald Trump dragged a case from a federal judge that he didn't like over to the Court of International Trade in New York. Three-judge panel, that's how they do things there, made a ruling late last night against him and ruled that he unconstitutionally imposed retaliatory tariffs. He doesn't have that power. Only Congress has that power. And Congress, while it can delegate, the court said, it has to delegate with clear limits and guidelines. It can't be limitless.

And Donald Trump doesn't have the power under that or under a International Economic Emergencies Procedures Act. We call it IEPA line of cases and statute. That's where we were last night.

Donald Trump immediately appealed by filing a notice of appeal with a specialty appellate court, also Article 3 under the Constitution that sits in D.C. called the Federal Circuit Court of Appeal. It only handles things like patents and trademarks and things related to the economy and tariffs and technology. All in one court. It's got about 11 members. Hold that number in your head.

So he files the notice, right? He doesn't skip the step and go to the Supreme Court like his usual behavior. While we're waiting to see if the court who's been asked by Trump to issue a stay, whether they're going to enter a stay, at least temporarily, in other words, block the decision by the Court of International Trade to tear down the tariffs, right?

While we were waiting for that, which has now happened, Judge Rudy Contreras, a judge that sits in D.C., had a whole nother tariff case in front of him about Chinese opioids and all sorts of things related to China that were imposed by Donald Trump pursuant to some other law. And similarly, Contreras said, no, you don't have the right to issue those tariffs. And so we had another loss for Donald Trump related to that before we even got to the federal circuit.

For instance, in particular, this is what the judge said in that case. It's a relatively short order. Here it is now. And there's a separate order that was granted. But this is the gist.

the tariffs deriving from an executive order imposing duties to address the synthetic opioid supply chain, the People's Republic of China and other reciprocal tariffs in all really related to China, they would be under the International Economic Emergency, sorry, under the International Economic Emergency Economic Powers Act, IEPA,

The judge found that IEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs pursuant to those orders. He's therefore preliminarily enjoined from collecting any tariffs and that shall be, now he's allowing them, he's staying it to allow the parties to seek review in another court of appeals, in this case, the DC Court of Appeals, not the federal circuit where we are related to the decision by the Court of International Trade.

Now, on the heels of that, hours later, we just got the ruling from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

in a, almost all the judges, 10 out of the 11 judges. So they got together en banc and they made a decision. And the decision is they're going to grant an administrative stay. An administrative stay is the lowest level of injunction that a court can grant. It's usually done without even reviewing any of the documents or the record, but the stay does hold the ring and block the order of the court, the international court,

The Court of International Trade, until they at the higher level, their bosses, have an opportunity to look at all the papers. So they set a briefing schedule. They want to look at the briefing schedule. They're going to consolidate to appeal. So it's all about one set of briefs. They'll set an oral argument at some point.

In the meantime, they don't want to be pressured by the Court of International Trade's order, so they put it on ice. It doesn't mean that Trump's ultimately going to win. It's a relatively neutral, agnostic, if you will, decision by a court. Happens all the time. They're not looking under the hood. They're not looking at the substance or the merits, what we say, the merits of the appeal. They will.

At that point, they may convert the administrative stay into a temporary restraining order or a stay that will last throughout the appeal. Or they might say, no, we don't think you have the grounds for a stay. It's an extraordinary set of relief to ask for from an appellate court. We'll do your appeal, but we're going to let the tariffs come down. My gut is they're going to block the order.

tearing down the tariffs until they've had a chance to fully understand it on appeal because they're going to argue. This is just their argument, I'm sure. The court's going to argue, well, we can't put the toothpaste back in the tube if all the tariffs are torn down and then we rule that was wrong. It's very hard to impose them again. It's diplomatic and economic chaos, which we don't need. We'll just stay the order.

for a month or two until we have a fast paced emergency or a fast paced briefing on this particular issue. That's what I think is going to happen. So the takeaway is Donald Trump did get the administrative stay to block the international, the Court of International Trade's decision while they get their their minds around the appeal. I think they'll keep that stay in place until the appeal is concluded while they may put it on a fast track.

And as a side note to that, a side branch to this discussion, Judge Contreras also determined on similar grounds, Judge Contreras also determined on similar grounds that the Donald Trump's use of IEPA, a body of law, does not empower him to issue

tailored sanctions by way of tariff imposition on China. So that's where we are in the tariff wars. Join us here on Midas Touch and on Legal AF for regular updates. You see how fast moving this story is. We've got a couple of stories that are really moving fast. Everything related to Harvard

really moving fast. Everything related to tariffs really moving fast. So come to Midas Touch and then slide over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel, where every hour we're doing a new video related to the intersection of law and politics. We want to be one-stop shopping for you in that area. And if you really want to nerd out, come over to our sub stack where we're posting decisions like the one you just found and that I just discussed up under Filings AF. So until my next report,

I'm Michael Popock for Midas Touch and Legal AF. Hey everybody, Ben Myselis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popock's new law firm. It's called the Popock Firm. Michael Popock's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm.

really based on the popular demand by all the Midas, Mighty and Legal AFers who were approaching Michael Popak with their cases and saying, can you help us? And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popak firm where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like

Car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know have a case like this, the consultation with Popox Firm is free. Give them a call. See if you have a case. It's thepopoxfirm.com, thepopoxfirm.com, or you can call 877-POPOC-AX.

P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-877-P-O-P-O-K-A-F. Give Michael Popock a call. And I'm really proud of you, Popock. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in. American Giant makes great clothing, sweatshirts, jeans, and more right here in the U.S. Visit American-Giant.com and get 20% off your first order with code STAPLE20. That's 20% off your first order at American-Giant.com. Code STAPLE20.