Supreme Court declines to hear case challenging Trump steel tariffs

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a case challenging President Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on imported steel products, meaning they will remain in effect.

The court denied a petition from the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS), a trade association representing steel importers and users of imported steel products.

Trump in 2018 imposed a tariff of 25 percent on steel imports, as well as a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports. The tariffs were imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the president to impose tariffs for national security purposes.

The AIIS argued in its petition to the Supreme Court that the steel tariffs are invalid because Section 232 “unconstitutionally delegates legislative power to the President.”

But the Trump administration argued that the Supreme Court rejected a similar challenge to Section 232 in a 1976 opinion.

The AIIS initially filed its lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade, which ruled in favor of the federal government. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit then affirmed the international trade court’s ruling. Both of those courts ruled that AIIS’s challenge is foreclosed by the 1976 Supreme Court ruling. Both of those courts cited the 1976 Supreme Court ruling.