Tariffs Back on For a While Probably, Maybe

May 30, 2025
By: David G. Forgue

Many of us are old enough to remember the roughly 20 hours, starting yesterday, when all IEEPA tariffs were “permanently enjoined.” It was a golden age.

However, as has been the case for all of 2025, the only constant is change. On May 29 the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit temporarily stayed the CIT’s decision that the tariffs could not be collected anymore. This is legal speak for “the IEEPA duties are back.” The CAFC was clear that the stay was not intended to remain during the appeals litigation. Instead, the stay is to give the CAFC time to consider whether to stop collection during the appeal. So, it is a temporary stay unless the court decides to make it a permanent stay.

As unsettled as that situation is, on May 29 the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia decided (a) that it has jurisdiction to decide an IEEPA duty case, and (b) that IEEPA does not authorize duties. That court enjoined collection only for parties to the litigation before it and delayed implementation for 14 days. That decision has been appealed to the District of Columbia Circuit, which is a different court from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. This raises a host of jurisdictional and process issues. We always expected this to be a Supreme Court matter, but a split in circuit decisions is an additional reason for a Supreme Court decision.

In the short term, two separate district courts have unequivocally found that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs to be imposed. In the meantime, for the foreseeable future there will be IEEPA duties collected by Customs.

Please do not hesitate to contact any attorney at Barnes, Richardson & Colburn, LLP if you have any questions regarding tariffs