| US President Donald Trump and his top economic advisers sent a series of clear signals Sunday that they have no plans to abandon his tariff plans even as the carnage in financial markets piles up. But might US courts save the global economy? The conservative New Civil Liberties Alliance last week sued the Trump administration on behalf of a Florida small business owner to try and block the imposition of tariffs. The grounds: that Trump is exceeding his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The 1977 legislation has been a mainstay of sanctions policy for years. But Trump this year became the first president to invoke it to deploy tariffs. Big Take: Trump's 'Chart of Death' Forces Wall Street to Face New Reality He first declared national emergencies related to immigration and opioid smuggling. Last week he went further and declared the US trade deficit a national emergency. Trump and his aides have ever since repeatedly declared that his latest tariffs are about national security. Which fits with his first term when the mantra was "economic security is national security." That's one reason some lawyers in Washington believe any legal challenge to Trump's tariffs may eventually fail. Would a Supreme Court dominated by conservatives that has traditionally shown great deference to executive powers really be comfortable ruling on what a president can and cannot declare a national emergency? Any statute being used for a "novel purpose" is likely to face scrutiny, says Brian Janovitz, a partner at law firm DLA Piper who until recently served as a senior attorney at the US Trade Representative's office. Emergency Authority "That said, this is an area also where there's quite a bit of deference shown to the executive," Janovitz says. The area being national security and a president's right to exert emergency powers. "This is a live question," he adds. And "I by no means think that there's a clear answer here, or that there is an obvious outcome to that type of litigation." There are plenty of other legal experts, though, who believe Trump is clearly exceeding the authority given to him by IEEPA. The statute's predecessor was used by Richard Nixon in 1971 to impose duties on imports as part of the Nixon Shock that brought an end to the link between the dollar and gold. Those duties were intended to force a currency realignment and only lasted four months. Read More: Global Market Meltdown Deepens as Tariff Turmoil Spreads Some trade lawyers looking at the statute think there may be better procedural grounds to challenge Trump's use of IEEPA. It gives presidents the authority to "regulate" and import taxes arguably are not regulations. A ruling on those grounds, they point out, would allow a judge to avoid having to second-guess a president's declaration of an emergency. All those legal arguments would take months if not years to play out. The suit filed last Thursday only applies to one tranche of tariffs on goods from China that took effect in February. But might a federal judge block those Trump tariffs at least temporarily? And might others follow if other lawsuits challenged the same authority? Courts have blocked other Trump actions over the past 10 weeks. If one enjoined the tariffs, that in itself would offer some respite to the US and global economies and financial markets caught in an escalating sell off. And as the investor losses mount and he faces growing pressure to pause or abandon one of his signature policies, perhaps even Trump might welcome that. For a bit at least. Related Reading:
—Shawn Donnan in Washington
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