Family-Owned Toy Companies Ask Supreme Court To Leapfrog Lower Court and Rule on Trump Tariffs
The companies say the case can’t wait for it to work its way through the traditional court process due to the impact of the tariffs.
Two family-owned Illinois educational toy companies are launching a long-shot bid to get the Supreme Court to quickly decide if President Trump’s tariffs are legal instead of letting the case work its way through lower courts at a normal pace.
Learning Resources Inc. and hand2mind are asking the justices to expedite consideration of their petition to hear the case currently in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. They say the case can’t wait for the traditional process due to the impact tariffs have on all businesses that import goods.
Mr. Trump used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare an economic emergency and place 10 percent tariffs on most countries and even higher tariffs on China and several others. Lawyers for the companies say neither the Constitution nor IEEPA give the president such unilateral power to impose the import taxes.
In the toy makers case, a federal district court has ruled the tariffs are unlawful — and the Court of International Trade has come to the same conclusion in a separate case — but appeals courts have allowed them to remain in force while the Trump administration appeals the decisions.
Tuesday’s filing with the Supreme Court asks the justices to consider the petition to hear the toy companies’ case at its next scheduled conference on June 25 or any subsequently added conference before it recesses for the summer. It also is asking the court to set a briefing schedule to allow oral argument as early as September if it decides to hear it.
The filing says the Supreme Court needs to step in to resolve matters of “staggering” legal, economic, and political significance and “end the crippling uncertainty the IEEPA tariffs have caused nationwide.”
It claims that if the case follows the traditional path, oral arguments in front of the justices would not take place until the end of 2025 or later. “That is an untenably long time to allow the American economy to be reshaped by unlawful tariffs,” the filing states.
Despite the claims of the urgent nature of the case, the chances of the justices taking it before it plays out at the appeals court level are low, the Associated Press reports.
