The battle over US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs has taken a sharp turn. Just a day after a federal trade court ruled that the President had overstepped his authority, a federal appeals court hit pause ~ allowing the tariffs to stay in place for now. The legal rollercoaster is far from over, but one thing is clear: the constitutional struggle over who holds the reins of US trade policy is heating up. The lower court had issued a strong rebuke, finding that Mr Trump’s broad use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose import taxes ~ on everything from Chinese toys to Italian wine ~ stretched the law far beyond its original intent. Meant for national emergencies and hostile foreign actors, the IEEPA was never designed as a blunt-force trade tool.

The court’s message was pointed: presidents can’t unilaterally redefine trade policy by declaring economic conditions an emergency. But that message has been........

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